History Main / TheLittleDetecto

* The hand-held Tricorders of the StarTrek universe are basically this. They can be rigged to detect whatever {{technobabble}} particle of the week the crew cares about.

* DoctorWho memorably featured the timey-wimey detector. [[BuffySpeak It goes ding when there's stuff.]] The [[MagicTool sonic screwdriver]] is used this way at times, too.

* [[TheMuppetShow Bunsen Honeydew]] once invented a gorilla detector. It completely failed to detect the gorilla until after it had already attacked his computers, and him. Bunsen originally attributed the failure to the fact that the attacker was not actually a gorilla.

* In ''TroperWorks/WALLEForumRoleplay'', Leonard Ghertivel has a device that detects all the specifics of various robot hardware/upgrades upon scanning of the robot in question.

* On ''{{Pokemon}}'' Officer Jenny (Junsa in the original) just happened to have a sleep wave detector in her pocket when the situation called for it. Dogasu (he compares the dub to the original) says [[http://dogasu.bulbagarden.net/comparisons/kanto/ep027.html here]]:
--->The whole thing is fine at first. We're presented with a mystery, and for a little while there the story makes some very logical progressions...but then everything just goes all to hell when Junsa (and, later, the Rocket-Dan) pulls out a freakin' sleep wave detector. Because, y'know, that's what police officers just happen to carry around with them at all times. I can totally imagine Junsa's orientation day at the police station. "OK...here's your badge, your gun, and your standard issue sleep wave detector. Good luck."

-->'''Hiei''': I only came to find the source of the vile noise... and kill it.

** Geiger counters detect radiation.
*** More accurately, they detect nuclear decay through beta particles or gamma rays.
* Clearly fraudulent, but cute nonetheless: one company in America makes dowsing rods that can detect anything from [[http://www.skepdic.com/quadro.html lost golf balls]] [[http://www.ted.com/talks/michael_shermer_on_believing_strange_things.html to marijuana in school lockers]].

* The dragon radar in ''{{Dragonball}}'', made by Bulma to find the Dragon Balls.
** Partially justified, as Bulma says the Dragonballs emit a special kind of radiation in the first chapter of the series. Later, it's shown a Dragonball's signal can be blocked by organic matter or a specially-made container. No explanation is given for how the Radar can detect Balls on the other side of the world, or across light-years, though.

[[AC:VideoGames]]

* ''{{Elder Scrolls}}: Morrowind had three detection spells, Detect Magic, Detect Creatures, and Detect ''Key''. While the last was very handy, one wonders what aspect of keys makes them detectable vice any other particular object. (Although it does serve a kind of MundaneUtility versimilitude. One can only imagine a wizard inventing it after turning his laboratory inside-out trying to figure out where he left his keys last night)

Contrast with EverythingSensor. TheLittleDetecto is different from EverythingSensor because it's not an EVERYTHING sensor. It detects only the one thing that is SeriousBusiness here.

* ''StargateAtlantis'' features the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Life Signs Detector]], about the size of a PDA, highly useful in many situations.

* When his teammates need to locate [[TokenEvilTeammate Hiei]], Botan mentions the Spirit Detective Tools. The Demon Compass [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin finds demons]] by measuring demon energy. The Mystic Whistle is a whistle for demons that functions like a dog whistle; it causes Hiei to appear.

* Clearly fraudulent, but cute nonetheless: one company in America makes dowsing rods that can detect anything from [[http://www.skepdic.com/quadro.html lost golf balls to marijuana in school lockers]].

** Though Locate City is most infamous for a trick called the Locate City Nuke. It involves places 4 different metamagics on the spell so that it becomes a viable target for putting a metamagic spell that throws people outside the range of the spell. Since Locate City's range is measured in miles and being thrown out of the range does 1d6 per ten feet, it kills pretty much everything in range including the caster.