LCARS
In the Star Trek fictional universe, LCARS is a computer operating system. Within Star Trek chronology, the term was first used in the Star Trek: The Next Generation series.
Production
The LCARS graphical user interface was designed by scenic art supervisor and technical consultant Michael Okuda. The original design concept was influenced by a request from Gene Roddenberry that the instrument panels not have a great deal of activity on them. This minimalized look was designed to give a sense that the technology was much more advanced than in the original Star Trek.On Star Trek: The Next Generation, many of the buttons were labeled with the initials of members of the production crew and were referred to as "Okudagrams."
PADD
The LCARS interface is often seen used on a PADD, a hand-held computer.At, similarly sized modern tablet computers such as the Nexus 7, Amazon Fire, BlackBerry PlayBook, and iPad Mini have been compared with the PADD. Several mobile apps were created which offered an LCARS-style interface.