Wednesday, September 3, 2014

XPrize Foundation Names Finalists For Qualcomm Tricorder Prize

Culver City-based nonprofit XPRIZE announced the ten finalists for the Qualcomm Tricorder XPRIZE today, picking teams from across the world to compete for $10M for developing a handheld device to monitor patient vital signs--ala the Star Trek "tricorder". According to the foundation, the ten teams came from Maryland, Canada, India, Massachusetts, Taiwan, Slovenia, California, and the United Kingdom. No Southern California teams made the cut. The prize is aimed at letting consumers make their own reliable health diagnoses anywhere, anytime, according to the foundation. The prize effort was launched in January of 2012; the teams are now going on to develop products for consumer testing in May to October of next year, with an ultimate winner to be selected by January of 2016.