Scientists make smartphone brain scanner

12 March 2014 - 15:49 By Bruce Gorton
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Snapshot of the SBS2 real time brain imaging system running on a Samsung Galaxy Note 2.
Snapshot of the SBS2 real time brain imaging system running on a Samsung Galaxy Note 2.
Image: PLOS One

Researchers have managed to use smartphones as mobile brain scanners, according to a research paper.

"The system – Smartphone Brain Scanner – combines an off-the-shelf neuroheadset or electroencephalography (EEG) cap with a smartphone or tablet, and as such represents the first fully portable system for real-time 3D EEG imaging," the researchers wrote in the journal Plos One.

This is the first fully portable system for real-time 3D EEG imaging.

While the quality isn't the greatest - the researchers figure that the sheer mobility of the device will give them entirely new opportunities for research in natural settings.

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