10 'Star Trek' Technologies That Actually Exist

Whether it's deep space or the deepest depths of the ocean, truly brilliant machines can operate in all sorts of extreme conditions. While the U.S.S. Enterprise doesn't exist (yet!), there are other technologies out there that seem to be taking cues from Star Trek's amazing portrayal of the future.

For the latest chapter in GE's Brilliant Machines story, let's consider 10 examples of tech that got their start in the scripts, but are now as real as the Higgs boson and its attendant field.

We set our course with the help of Joe Latrell, a "recovering" rocket scientist — yes, he's actually put payloads into space — and a longtime Trekkie.

1. Tractor Beams. On a scale not quite as minute as the Higgs boson, one ultra high-tech development that the U.S.S. Enterprise writ large is the beam that can tow another vessel. "Scientists have created tractor-beam-like forceps to move atoms around," says Latrell. "They might not move much yet, but the principle is the same."

2. Communicators. How we talk to each other is now virtually the same as how our favorite crew members did onscreen. "The first flip cellphone is often cited as a comparable item to the communicator," Latrell says. "The latest Galaxy Wearable device looks very much like the communicators used in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. There is a version of a communicator being used in hospitals that resembles the communicator from Star Trek: The Next Generation as well."

Image: Vocera

3. PADDs. It's hard to deny that the handheld tablets we watched Picard and Riker carry around have become analogous to our own iPads and other devices. We might even have taken it further. "With hundreds of thousands of apps, from drawing to databases to communications, the tablet is actually ahead of what we envisioned in Trek," Latrell suggests.

4. In-Ear Comms. Oh, Uhura. Nobody thought you were bonkers when you started conversations with the voices in your head. That's because your in-ear communications device was a huge silver thing that everyone could see. Nowadays, we've got inconspicuous Bluetooths and similar devices. (Woe is the walker in the throes of a public argument.)

5. Voice Interface. Remember when a time-traveling Scotty picked up a computer mouse in Star Trek IV and tried to talk to the terminal? The 20th-century engineers around him wore their reactions on their sleeves. No more would our original engineer get such treatment, thanks to Siri and her cousins — common in everything from your computer to your car.

6. Transparent Aluminum. Here's another Star Trek IV related innovation. Scientists recently unveiled an aluminum-based ceramic that's not only transparent, it'll stop a .50 caliber round. Go ahead and make a humpback-whale aquarium out of that!

Image: Surmet ALON

7. Tricorders. A staple of just about every Star Trek doctor, from Bones to Crusher and beyond, Latrell says we're close: "Several companies are working on medical tricorders. The XPRIZE foundation even has a contest to create one. A cash prize awaits the first person to create one to their specifications."

8. Hypospray. We've got this one, now. They're called jet injectors, and you'll find them particularly in the realm of mass vaccination.

Image: MIT BioInstrumentation Lab

9. Replicators. Our real-world version of ask-and-you-shall-receive devices probably aren't ready for "Earl Gray, hot," but they're not too bad for 2013. "3-D printing is still in its infancy but quickly gaining ground," says Latrell. "You can order designs in plastics, metals or ceramics. For those who want a home machine, MakerBot has the Replicator2. This only prints in plastic at the moment but future machines may print in just about anything. Some people are even experimenting with 3-D printers for food or replacement body parts."

10. Holodeck. Who knew that the closest thing to Data meeting Moriarty in Victorian times would be 2 Pac in concert as a posthumous musical act? Yes, holograms are on a fast track toward commercial use, but when it comes to full immersion a lot of folks are talking about the Oculus Rift, which is a wearable headset that has made some recent waves with its veracity of experience. On the other hand, Oculus Rift won't lock us all in and force us to play a deadly game every time the computer goes on the fritz. We hope.

Sure, there are other innovations: teleporters (we're maybe getting there with light), or isolinear chips (flash drives, if you want to stretch things a bit), but we've looked at ones that have hard-copy current-day applications.

Let's just make sure we skip real-life counterparts to that cone-shaped doomsday thing from the original series and, of course, please nobody invent the Borg.