Star Trek tech we use today (almost)

For the past four decades, Star Trek has been influencing and predicting new gadgets and technologies. How close are we to Trek-inspired phasers, tricorders, and invisibility cloaks?

Star Trek: Handheld Communicator vs. Today: Flip Cell Phone



A Star Trek communicator was truly a miraculous device, allowing the crew to contact a starship in orbit without the need for cell towers or satellites to boost the signal. In many instances, it worked underground and inside heavily fortified structures, too. The design of today’s flip phones was inspired by Star Trek, and in some ways our communicators are more advanced. Did Kirk ever text Scotty? Did Mr. Sulu shoot video of McCoy performing a reverse brain transplant on Spock? (Okay, okay--somebody did, obviously--but presumably not with a phone.) And did the United Federation of Planets have an app store?

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