'Biomac 500' medical averaging computer used in the EEG (Electroencephalograph) department at The Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, example of the first medical averaging computers, 1965-1970.

Used in the EEG (electroencephalography) department at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, England, this computer was one of the first examples of a medical averaging computer. EEG is the study of the electrical signals in the brain. The computer, made by Data Laboratories Limited, was used to analyse the data from electromyograms – medical tests on the nervous system. The computer could calculate the results and produce them in a readable format for the doctors. These kinds of tests are also used in psychological research, to study ‘brain waves’, and would be far harder to carry out without computers like this one to analyse the data.