A researcher team developed a device which reminds of the fictional Star Trek ‘tricorder,’ to detect early stage cancers without touching skin at all.

The device can identify tumors when pointed at a person’s body and according to the researchers, the technology can be more portable and less expensive than other cancer detection systems like MRIs and CTs, and safer than X-rays.

Stanford University Assistant Professor Amin Arbabian and Research Professor Pierre Khuri-Yakub, who led the work, presented the device at the International Ultrasonic Symposium in Taipei, Taiwan.

Its technology is based on the technology for detecting buried plastic explosives to ‘hear’ unseen objects.

The device builds on principals of an 1880 experiment, in which Alexander Graham Bell used light to produce a musical tone from a receiver made of carbon black.

When stimulated by electromagnetic energy, like light or microwaves, all materials expand and contract.