LONDON, Feb 25: Star Trek’s Dr McCoy used to wave one in almost every episode and now scientists have managed to make a real life version of the “medical tricorder”, the electric-razor sized sensor used to monitor a person’s heartbeat or brain waves.

A team at Sussex University in Britain made the breakthrough after setting out to improve the efficiency of electrocardiograms and their super sensor can now monitor a person’s heartbeat and brainwaves from up to a metre away.

The prototype device is not hand-held like Dr. McCoy’s but fastened rigidly in front of the seated patient. At the moment it does not look very spaceage either, consisting of a copper disc mounted on the end of a metal box. Details of what is inside are being kept secret because of patents pending but results using volunteers have proved promising.

“What we’re talking about is a real paradigm shift. These devices are orders of magnitude more sensitive than anything than has gone before, yet they are cheap and relatively easy to produce.”—dpa