King's College London

TY - JOUR

T1 - Affordable embroidered emg electrodes for myoelectric control of prostheses

T2 - A pilot study

AU - Kamavuako, Ernest N.

AU - Brown, Mitchell

AU - Bao, Xinqi

AU - Chihi, Ines

AU - Pitou, Samuel

AU - Howard, Matthew

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Copyright: Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

PY - 2021/8/1

Y1 - 2021/8/1

N2 - Commercial myoelectric prostheses are costly to purchase and maintain, making their provision challenging for developing countries. Recent research indicates that embroidered EMG electrodes may provide a more affordable alternative to the sensors used in current prostheses. This pilot study investigates the usability of such electrodes for myoelectric control by comparing online and offline performance against conventional gel electrodes. Offline performance is evaluated through the classification of nine different hand and wrist gestures. Online performance is assessed with a crossover two-degree-of-freedom real-time experiment using Fitts’ Law. Two performance metrics (Throughput and Completion Rate) are used to quantify usability. The mean classification accuracy of the nine gestures is approximately 98% for subject-specific models trained on both gel and embroidered electrode offline data from individual subjects, and 97% and 96% for general models trained on gel and embroidered offline data, respectively, from all subjects. Throughput (0.3 bits/s) and completion rate (95–97%) are similar in the online test. Results indicate that embroidered electrodes can achieve similar performance to gel electrodes paving the way for low-cost myoelectric prostheses.

AB - Commercial myoelectric prostheses are costly to purchase and maintain, making their provision challenging for developing countries. Recent research indicates that embroidered EMG electrodes may provide a more affordable alternative to the sensors used in current prostheses. This pilot study investigates the usability of such electrodes for myoelectric control by comparing online and offline performance against conventional gel electrodes. Offline performance is evaluated through the classification of nine different hand and wrist gestures. Online performance is assessed with a crossover two-degree-of-freedom real-time experiment using Fitts’ Law. Two performance metrics (Throughput and Completion Rate) are used to quantify usability. The mean classification accuracy of the nine gestures is approximately 98% for subject-specific models trained on both gel and embroidered electrode offline data from individual subjects, and 97% and 96% for general models trained on gel and embroidered offline data, respectively, from all subjects. Throughput (0.3 bits/s) and completion rate (95–97%) are similar in the online test. Results indicate that embroidered electrodes can achieve similar performance to gel electrodes paving the way for low-cost myoelectric prostheses.

KW - Conventional gel electrodes

KW - Embroidered EMG electrodes

KW - Myoelectric prostheses

KW - Online and offline performance

KW - Pilot study

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85111693240&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.3390/s21155245

DO - 10.3390/s21155245

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85111693240

VL - 21

JO - SENSORS

JF - SENSORS

SN - 1424-8220

IS - 15

M1 - 5245

ER -