The original physical prop for the tricorder was designed by Wah Chang and appeared in "The Man Trap" in 1966, the first Star Trek episode to air.

The tricorder of the 23rd century, as seen in Star Trek: The Original Series, is a black, rectangular device with a top-mounted rotating hood, two opening compartments, and a shoulder strap.

The standard tricorder is a general-purpose device used primarily to scout unfamiliar areas, make detailed examination of living things, and record and review technical data.

The 24th-century version introduced in Star Trek: The Next Generation is a small, gray, hand-held model with a flip-out panel to allow for a larger screen.

Examples include Jeff Jetton's Tricorder for the PalmPilot; the Web application for the Pocket PC, iPhone, and iPod Touch; and an Android version.

[citation needed] In February 2007, researchers from Purdue University publicly announced their portable (briefcase-sized) DESI-based mass spectrometer, the Mini-10,[5] which can be used to analyze compounds in ambient conditions without prior sample preparation.

[6] In March 2008, British biotech company QuantuMDx was founded to develop the world's first handheld DNA lab, a molecular diagnostic point-of-care device which will provide disease diagnosis in under 15 minutes.

The day after the announcement, technology websites, including Inside Tech[9] and The Future of Things,[10] began comparing this device to the Star Trek tricorder.

[17] In 2012, cognitive science researcher Dr. Peter Jansen announced having developed a handheld mobile computing device modeled after the design of the tricorder.

"[21] On February 19, 2022, NASA sent the rHEALTH ONE,[22] a universal biomedical analyzer, regarded as a comprehensive device capable of measuring most common lab tests for spaceflight medical conditions, to the International Space Station.

[24] Over 100 million raw data points were recorded on five different detector channels using two lasers with a readout of minutes, making the rHEALTH ONE the most powerful biomedical analyzer ever tested in space.