It’s well documented that Nintendo’s Gameboy Advance is one of the most hackable consoles ever produced.
With the right knowledge you could hack the console to run through an N64, act like an Etch-a-Sketch, advanced sewing machines, fish sonar, or even connect to the web.
It wasn’t until recently the most surprising hack was discovered by engineer Jan Henrik. The hack involved components of the SP version of the Gameboy Advance being used to build an effective ECG heart monitor.
By integrating most of the consoles components, including the motion sensors for the controls and the graphics card for the display and the screen itself makers Medical Imaging Electronics created a cheap alternative to a usually expensive piece of medical equipment.
The ECG is still in use across America and is widely used in Africa. The high resolution and backlight of the SP’s screen make the displaying of essential medical information very clear and the consoles 4 MB of memory allows storage of previous results for comparison.
In fact just before the revelation of the monitor being a hybrid of the SP in a survey by Medical Imaging Electronics most Clinicians had highly praised the MiE Trigger-Unit for its accuracy and intuitiveness.
Given that Nintendo have licensed the use of the SP in the monitor who knows, there might be a use for all those unwanted Wii U’s out there.
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