It's no secret that Google is always developing hardware ideas and concepts that may or may not make it to full consumer release, but we've rarely wanted one as much as we do the device revealed in an interview with Time in the US.

Amit Singhal, senior vice president and software engineer at Google, told the magazine that the company built a fully-working prototype of a the pin-badge communicator inspired by the ones used in Star Trek.

It fully works, by connecting to a smartphone through Bluetooth, but sadly never made it beyond the testing phase.

A microphone is activated after a tap of the device and then links to Google in order to search on the internet. It also enables the user to speak to others wearing communicators.

"I always wanted that pin," Singhal explained.

"You just ask it anything and it works. That’s why we were like, ‘Let’s go prototype that and see how it feels.’"

It is unclear whether the device pre-dated Google Now, which would have added an all-new element to its functionality. But then, it's not like we don't have other devices that can't perform the same functionality. Bluetooth headsets and even smartwatches can be used to enable voice search.

Still, we can dream.