Make It So: Google’s Voice-Search-Enabled Star Trek Communicator Pin

Credit: Google

Google, and search czar Amit Singhal in particular, have long been trying to develop experiences that mimic the functioning and capabilities of the “Star Trek computer.” In one sense, Google initiatives such as voice search, predictive search, Knowledge Graph, machine learning and AI are all working toward the ultimate objective: creating a virtual assistant that can answer any question.

Time reports on Google’s prototyping of a wearable device modeled on the Star Trek Communicator (the Next Generation uniform version, not the original series’ Motorola flip phone version). Above is a picture of Singhal wearing the lapel-pin-sized device.

As Time describes it, and as the picture indicates, it’s a circular piece of hardware that is Bluetooth-enabled and contains a mic. It’s activated by tapping on it. And, like the Android watch, it’s also connected to a smartphone.

Time says the idea behind the Google Communicator, beyond seeing if it could be built, was to “test out how users might interact with voice search in new ways.” As with the Android watch, the hope was that it would make Google accessible without having to take out your phone. The larger notion is about finding ways to integrate Google search and associated capabilities deeply into our lives in new and more seamless ways.

It doesn’t appear this device will move much beyond the prototype stage. However, its development illustrates how Google is thinking about and testing new form factors in an effort to anticipate and invent the future of search.