Brain scanner

The brainscanner, which formed the basis of the medical electronics division, offered EMI an opportunity to market one of the most significant British inventions since the second world war. The UK is often accused of failing to exploit its own inventions, and letting others make off with the best ideas and turn them into money. In the case of the brainscanner, however, EMI was determined to make the most of it.

The brainscanner reveals more of the living human brain than any other instrument. […] The British-designed EMI brainscanner is introduced to give cross-sectional X-rays compiled from views taken all around the brain. […] The technique of computerized axial tomography—the process upon which the scanner depends—was originated by EMI researchers in 1967 and made available to the medical profession in the form of a brainscanner in 1972.

They are evaluating a system developed by British Telecom in which images on the brainscanner at the hospital are transmitted via the public telephone system to their television set, using electronic “black boxes.” By using a slow-scan television technique, a picture is transmitted every 30 seconds from the black box connected to the brainscanner and appears on the TV screen.