Sometimes, truth can be stranger than fiction, and what we are most interested to see is how fiction can sometimes be a prophecy of sorts, an insight of what is to come in the corporeal world. Take Minority Report’s touch-based interface for instance – we are no longer fascinated by it any more these days. How about the Communicator Badge from Star Trek? That continued to be elusive, coming in the form of walkie talkies and other accessories before, but it has never been realized in the same manner as which Onyx was, not until today, at least.
Thanks to a company known as OnBeep, the world’s actual, working “Star Trek communicator badge” is now a reality, although we won’t be using this in space anytime soon, but rather, it ought to come in handy over at factories and large offices. You clip the Onyx onto your shirt, and to hook it up to your smartphone over a Bluetooth connection. You can then add other Onyx users to your network, as well as communicate with them instantly with but a simple a press of a button. On the receiving end, they will need to press a button to reply, which makes it somewhat like a modernized walkie talkie.