De Brouwer's no stranger to building capable, disruptive hardware on the cheap -- he's the former CEO of OLPC Europe -- and that's exactly what he set out to create with Scout. His primary goals for Scout were to create a widely affordable device able to provide comprehensive and accurate health data to users in around ten seconds. Doing so was no small feat, and required extensive electrical and mechanical engineering to build hardware capable of gathering the needed information in a short enough period for it to be attractive to consumers. Heavy data analytics and mathematics work were also required to craft algorithms able to separate desired data from the noise that necessarily came with using (relatively) cheap components.

After 18 months of R&D, Scanadu finally built a functional, 3D-printed prototype that Dr. Greene informed us is as accurate as the instruments used in a doctor's office. And, not only has Scanadu built Scout, but also the company has developed ScanaFlo, a disposable urine analysis tool and ScanaFlu, a disposable respiratory infection tool. Both disposables render results in a kind of colored code format that is then read by the companion app using your smartphone's camera. Like the Scout, the company wants to make ScanaFlu and ScanaFlo affordable, and is aiming to sell them in packs of three or five for about the same price as a disposable pregnancy test.

We got to see the prototype version of Scout and the companion app, and while we can't confirm the veracity of the results, we can confirm that the app's easy to use and it only took around 10-15 seconds to pull the health info from the device. Unfortunately, because the prototype system isn't final, and Scanadu's still in the midst of obtaining FDA approval (hence a late 2013 arrival) we weren't allowed to take any pictures or videos of of it in action. Rest assured, however, the device is quite real and quite functional, and the day is fast approaching when you'll be able to buy a tricorder of your very own from the local CVS Pharmacy or Wal-Mart -- Mr. Roddenberry would be pleased.