Biomed engineers develop brain-powered device Megan Long (left)
and Kelsey Wiggin Posted: June 18, 2010 By Julia Ferrante
LEWISBURG, Pa. — Megan Long sits perfectly still in the rolling
office chair with her chin turned up slightly. Three gold
electrodes are affixed firmly to the center of her forehead and
the back of her head, and two green and red plastic monitors are
positioned on her neck. "OK, close your eyes, Megan," her
classmate Kelsey Wiggin says. Several seconds later, a toy car-
sized motor on wheels borrowed from a Lego set begins to crawl
across a set of strings suspended above the table. "Now open
your eyes," Wiggin says. The motor crawls to a stop. "Flex your
neck" she says. The motor switches directions. Long and Wiggin
are testing a brainwave- and muscle-activated mechanism they
developed with fellow rising senior and biomedical engineering
major Ben Geib for a Fundamentals of Biomedical Signals and
Systems class at Bucknell University. Their hope is that the
technology, if further developed,