Student's Brainwave Proves Illuminating
Newcastle Herald
Wednesday November 18, 1998
LIGHT bulbs over people's heads have often been used by cartoonists to illustrate a bright idea.
But at Newcastle University yesterday an engineer's bright idea was using people's heads to illustrate a light bulb.
The demonstration was part of an exhibition by final year engineering students.
While there was much interest in a ball-fetching robot, a solar powered vehicle and a new PC-based video security system, it was the brain-activated light bulb that really shone.
The remote EEG telemetry system developed by engineering student Mr Peter De Lore allowed people to switch a light bulb on and off using only their brainwaves.
The `light bulb' was a computer graphic but Mr De Lore said with a bit more work it could have been a real one.
The system uses a radio link to transmit data from sensors on a patient's head to remote monitoring equipment.
Although switching the light bulb was merely to illustrate how the principle worked, Mr De Lore said the device had practical applications for hospitals.
Mr De Lore, an employee of the John Hunter's Biomedical Engineering unit, said he built the system out of the need to make hospital patients as comfortable as possible.
`This system allows us to move the monitoring system away from the patient's bedside,' Mr De Lore said.
`It can often be an unnerving experience to be surrounded by medical equipment when you are sick in hospital.
`Given that there was an obvious need for the machine I used the knowledge I gained from my engineering course to build the machine, with funding from the bio-medical engineering unit.'
Mr De Lore said similar machines in the United States were unavailable in Australia.
© 1998 Newcastle Herald