Beam me up, Google! Tech giant creates prototype of Star Trek ‘communicator’

In a design based on a futuristic gadget featured in the iconic American TV series Star Trek, Google has created a badge which is directly linked to your smartphone.

The communicator used in the sci-fi series far surpassed the capabilities of the modern mobile phone – or at least we thought. Google, however, has now created a very real version of the communicator in the form of a badge directly linked to your smartphone. 

The wearable circular device has a built-in microphone and Bluetooth, allowing it to connect to a phone without any unnecessary fiddling.

Google’s concept is not for phone calls - it’s yet another link to the company’s search engine, exploring new ways in which voice searches might be made more practical. 

In an interview with Time magazine, Amit Singhal, senior vice president and software engineer at Google, confessed that he had always wanted the communicator device shown in Star Trek. 

“You just ask it anything and it works. That’s why we were like, ‘Let’s go prototype that and see how it feels.’”

Don’t get your hopes up just yet though - the Google badge is only a prototype at this stage. However, it is still a powerful insight into where predictive searching and wearable tech is heading in the near future. 

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The pin communicator made its first appearance in Star Trek in 1964, two years after the series had debuted. 

Regularly mentioned in interviews, Star Trek has long been a source of inspiration for Google engineers.