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>> Welcome to CNET Top Five. Each time we meet we count
down another hot CNET list, I'm Tom Merit. And my
friends, you may not realize it, but we are living in
the future. We have gone boldly where no one has gone
before. Star Trek is real. Today things that were only
imaginary when Star Trek launched in 1966 are now in
your hands in some cases. So let's count them down. At
number five, the Tricorder, a real, working tricorder is
in fact already obsolete. Mark 1TR 107 from Vital
Technologies was unveiled in 1996. Unfortunately, they
went out of business and the only place you can one now
is sometimes on eBay. Coming in at number four, voice
activated computers. The Enterprise's computer was very
chatty. Well, now speech recognition comes standard on
Windows Vista. And it works pretty well. Well, what do
you say to Vista? Hello computer. Can you suck less?
Thanks. And it doesn't respond in Major Barrett's voice
either. Up to number three, the phaser. Sure, it's not
quite deadly yet, but the U.S. Air Force has something
called the Personnel Halting and Stimulation Response
System, or PHSR. It uses light to halt oncoming people.
So essentially all we have so far is stun. Sliding in
at number two, big screens. That's right. The big
wall-sized screen from the Enterprise is definitely a
reality called HDTV. A projector can take any image you
want from the TV, the net, remote cameras, and put it to
the screen. So fun to say. Before we get to number
one, let's check in on the top five Star Trek
technologies that are really close to becoming a
reality. They're not quite there yet. All right.
Let's get to our number one. Our top Star Trek
technology that you can carry around with you every day.
At number one, it's the communicator. The old
flip-phone device from the original series. Remember
that? Think Razor as but one example, and then
[Inaudible] little ear thingy is easily seen on any city
street. It's a Bluetooth headset. And yet, there's
still no intelligent life down here. What gives? Well,
that's it for this edition of CNET Top Five. Please,
pop in with your own suggestions at our blog,
blog.cnettv.com. I'm Tom Merit, beam me out of here.
