This week at CES, we met up with George Yu, founder and CEO of Chattanooga, TN based Variable Technologies. He’s developed NODE, a petite, handheld cylinder containing a number of different sensors. NODE contains two components, KORE, which is the middle part of the cylinder containing a rechargeable battery, low-energy Bluetooth 4.0, a gyroscope, accelerometer, and magnetometer, and the interchangeable modules. Like caps on a bottle, you can purchase and attach up to two interchangeable modules that add additional sensors. Right now, the available modules are CHROMA for comparing colors, THERMA for measuring temperature via infrared, CLIMA for measuring climate, OXA, an electrochemical gas sensor, and LUMA for turning your NODE into a flashlight. Of course, the sky’s the limit for developing new sensor modules and applications, and Yu says they’re just getting started.
Here’s a look at the NODE and some of the potential health and medical applications for its use:
We also can’t help but notice the resemblance to a certain piece of Star Trek technology we recall from our younger TV watching days. While Qualcomm may have kicked off a multi-million dollar Tricorder X Prize this week at CES, we think the team at Variable Technologies is already off to a good start on their own tricorder.
NODE is available now for $149 with additional modules costing $75 each.
Product Page: NODE…