A $10m (£6.5m) prize is on offer to whoever can create a Star Trek-like medical "tricorder".

The Qualcomm Tricorder X Prize has challenged researchers to build a tool capable of capturing "key health metrics and diagnosing a set of 15 diseases".

That may seem like an impossibly ambitious set of goals, but fortunately, for those trying to win the prize, one feature of the Star Trek tricorder is not needed.

"We don't have a requirement that it makes the same noise," Mr Diamandis said.

My Tricorder makes the noise. It just lacks some of the medical functions.

Apparently a lot of information can be gained by "sniffing" the patient and analysing the particles. This is probably how dogs can diagnose cancer and stuff.