ST:TNG Tricorder design was inspired by HP-41C

[Joe Horn]

Rick Sternbach, the famous illustrator who designed much of the iconic eye candy in several Star Trek series and movies, made this interesting comment during an interview in July 2007:

Rick Sternbach Wrote:The [Next Generation] tricorders were initially inspired by the HP-41C programmable calculators, which I found to be amazing new (at the time) pieces of technology that could do amazing numbers of functions. The basic shape involved a button interface, sockets for plug-in modules and peripherals, and a one-line display. With some 24th century updating, the thing was perfect, and evolved into a similarly shaped and sized device that boasted touch-sensitive controls, multi-function color display, and a variety of sensors and com subsystems. And all way before the iPod or iPhone.

The fact that it folded was partly to give the actor something interesting to do with it, since the communicator was reduced to a single solid object. The pull-out sensor was another actor “piece of business” that worked well for us.

One of Rick's pieces of original concept art for the ST:TNG Tricorder:



Closeups of the real McCoy (as it were) can be seen here: https://www.therpf.com/forums/threads/tn...686/page-6