Grimer, with his little creations. Art by Carl Flint.
Portable Brain Scanners are helmet-like devices used to scan an individual's cerebral cortex. It is capable of absorbing the thought patterns of a living being and downloading it into another person or even a robot. Doctor Robotnik used a version of the device to provide Commander Brutus with a copy of his brain patterns, so that the robot would think as he would. This turned out to be a grave mistake, as Brutus also inherited Robotnik's desire for power and sought to conquer Mobius himself. Grimer also created the portable edition for Brutus, not knowing that he secretly planned to use it on the scientist in order to learn how to create powerful Badniks. Its final use was on Johnny Lightfoot, hoping to learn all of his secrets - such as where the Emerald Hill folk were hiding. Although the mission was a success, Brutus accidentally picked up Johnny's heroic traits, causing him to blow up Troopers, so Brutus reversed the damage and crushed the scanners, losing the information at the same time.
A version of the Brain Scanner appeared in the Eternal Champions series within the main building of Nakano Industries. After the nine Champions arrived in 1994 Tokyo to prevent Bio-Key construction, Nakano captured Shadow Yamoto, Jonathan Blade and Slash in an attempt to learn what they know about the research. The process appeared to be extremely painful and got even more so when the scientist in charge of the operation was ordered to increase the intensity. Eventually, the power got too much for Slash and the ape-man broke free of his restraints, destroying the machine. Rather than downloading information into someone's mind, this machine simply provided a graphical representation of the subject's thoughts. Yamoto's screen remained filled with static, her ninja mind control shielding her brain. Blade's simply showed his face as he had little knowledge of the plan, whilst Slash's only showed fire, revealing his fixation with the flames.