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Hossain MS, Islam MJ, Islam MR. Unraveling cEMG-wet sEMG Correlation Dynamics: Investigating Influential Factors. J Electromyogr Kinesiol 2024; 78:102912. [PMID: 38924818 DOI: 10.1016/j.jelekin.2024.102912] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/26/2024] [Revised: 06/01/2024] [Accepted: 06/17/2024] [Indexed: 06/28/2024] Open
Abstract
The electromyography (EMG) signal provides insight into neuromuscular activity which is used in medical and technological fields. Traditional needle electrodes and surface electrodes have several drawbacks making them less suitable for portable and long-term use. In contrast, emerging capacitive electrodes offer promising features over the existing electrodes. Yet, the full potential of capacitive electrodes remains untapped due to the lack of comprehensive design optimization for consistently reliable signal quality. This study highlights the complex interplay of factors influencing correlation in capacitive EMG (cEMG) and wet surface EMG (wet sEMG) signals. The study emphasizes the importance of the surface area of capacitive electrodes, muscle force, preprocessing, and sampling frequency in understanding and improving the correlation between cEMG and wet sEMG signals, providing valuable insights for future research and applications in the field. The study reveals that the electrode area has no significant effect on the correlation. However, the correlation significantly depends on the muscle force. In addition, removing artifacts from the cEMG signal increases the correlation, especially for lower force where artifacts are significant. Again, oversampling the EMG signal above 800 Hz does not have any impact on increasing the correlation but the correlation decreases with higher inter-electrode distance (IED). In this research, the highest correlation of 82.89% (normalized-91.62%) between cEMG and sEMG has been achieved for high muscle force with a plate area of 4 cm2. Therefore, the capacitive electrode can be an alternative for EMG signal acquisition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Md Sazzad Hossain
- Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Rajshahi, Rajshahi 6205, Bangladesh
| | - Md Johirul Islam
- Department of Physics, Rajshahi University of Engineering & Technology, Rajshahi 6204, Bangladesh.
| | - Md Rezaul Islam
- Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Rajshahi, Rajshahi 6205, Bangladesh
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2
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Colachis M, Schlink BR, Colachis S, Shqau K, Huegen BL, Palmer K, Heintz A. Benchtop Performance of Novel Mixed Ionic-Electronic Conductive Electrode Form Factors for Biopotential Recordings. SENSORS (BASEL, SWITZERLAND) 2024; 24:3136. [PMID: 38793990 PMCID: PMC11125343 DOI: 10.3390/s24103136] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/28/2024] [Revised: 05/02/2024] [Accepted: 05/10/2024] [Indexed: 05/26/2024]
Abstract
Background: Traditional gel-based (wet) electrodes for biopotential recordings have several shortcomings that limit their practicality for real-world measurements. Dry electrodes may improve usability, but they often suffer from reduced signal quality. We sought to evaluate the biopotential recording properties of a novel mixed ionic-electronic conductive (MIEC) material for improved performance. Methods: We fabricated four MIEC electrode form factors and compared their signal recording properties to two control electrodes, which are electrodes commonly used for biopotential recordings (Ag-AgCl and stainless steel). We used an agar synthetic skin to characterize the impedance of each electrode form factor. An electrical phantom setup allowed us to compare the recording quality of simulated biopotentials with ground-truth sources. Results: All MIEC electrode form factors yielded impedances in a similar range to the control electrodes (all <80 kΩ at 100 Hz). Three of the four MIEC samples produced similar signal-to-noise ratios and interfacial charge transfers as the control electrodes. Conclusions: The MIEC electrodes demonstrated similar and, in some cases, better signal recording characteristics than current state-of-the-art electrodes. MIEC electrodes can also be fabricated into a myriad of form factors, underscoring the great potential this novel material has across a wide range of biopotential recording applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matthew Colachis
- Battelle Memorial Institute, 505 King Ave., Columbus, OH 43201, USA; (B.R.S.); (K.S.); (K.P.); (A.H.)
| | - Bryan R. Schlink
- Battelle Memorial Institute, 505 King Ave., Columbus, OH 43201, USA; (B.R.S.); (K.S.); (K.P.); (A.H.)
| | - Sam Colachis
- Battelle Memorial Institute, 505 King Ave., Columbus, OH 43201, USA; (B.R.S.); (K.S.); (K.P.); (A.H.)
| | - Krenar Shqau
- Battelle Memorial Institute, 505 King Ave., Columbus, OH 43201, USA; (B.R.S.); (K.S.); (K.P.); (A.H.)
| | - Brittani L. Huegen
- UES, a BlueHalo Company, 4401 Dayton Xenia Road, Beavercreek, OH 45432, USA;
| | - Katherine Palmer
- Battelle Memorial Institute, 505 King Ave., Columbus, OH 43201, USA; (B.R.S.); (K.S.); (K.P.); (A.H.)
| | - Amy Heintz
- Battelle Memorial Institute, 505 King Ave., Columbus, OH 43201, USA; (B.R.S.); (K.S.); (K.P.); (A.H.)
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3
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Chun S, Kim S, Kim J. Human Arm Workout Classification by Arm Sleeve Device Based on Machine Learning Algorithms. SENSORS (BASEL, SWITZERLAND) 2023; 23:3106. [PMID: 36991817 PMCID: PMC10057383 DOI: 10.3390/s23063106] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/10/2023] [Revised: 03/12/2023] [Accepted: 03/13/2023] [Indexed: 06/19/2023]
Abstract
Wearables have been applied in the field of fitness in recent years to monitor human muscles by recording electromyographic (EMG) signals. Understanding muscle activation during exercise routines allows strength athletes to achieve the best results. Hydrogels, which are widely used as wet electrodes in the fitness field, are not an option for wearable devices due to their characteristics of being disposable and skin-adhesion. Therefore, a lot of research has been conducted on the development of dry electrodes that can replace hydrogels. In this study, to make it wearable, neoprene was impregnated with high-purity SWCNTs to develop a dry electrode with less noise than hydrogel. Due to the impact of COVID-19, the demand for workouts to improve muscle strength, such as home gyms and personal trainers (PT), has increased. Although there are many studies related to aerobic exercise, there is a lack of wearable devices that can assist in improving muscle strength. This pilot study proposed the development of a wearable device in the form of an arm sleeve that can monitor muscle activity by recording EMG signals of the arm using nine textile-based sensors. In addition, some machine learning models were used to classify three arm target movements such as wrist curl, biceps curl, and dumbbell kickback from the EMG signals recorded by fiber-based sensors. The results obtained show that the EMG signal recorded by the proposed electrode contains less noise compared to that collected by the wet electrode. This was also evidenced by the high accuracy of the classification model used to classify the three arms workouts. This work classification device is an essential step towards wearable devices that can replace next-generation PT.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sehwan Chun
- Department of Organic Materials and Fiber Engineering, Soongsil University, Seoul 156-743, Republic of Korea
| | - Sangun Kim
- Department of Smart Wearable Engineering, Soongsil University, Seoul 156-743, Republic of Korea
| | - Jooyong Kim
- Department of Organic Materials and Fiber Engineering, Soongsil University, Seoul 156-743, Republic of Korea
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Ullah H, Wahab MA, Will G, Karim MR, Pan T, Gao M, Lai D, Lin Y, Miraz MH. Recent Advances in Stretchable and Wearable Capacitive Electrophysiological Sensors for Long-Term Health Monitoring. BIOSENSORS 2022; 12:bios12080630. [PMID: 36005025 PMCID: PMC9406032 DOI: 10.3390/bios12080630] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/23/2022] [Revised: 07/22/2022] [Accepted: 07/27/2022] [Indexed: 05/27/2023]
Abstract
Over the past several years, wearable electrophysiological sensors with stretchability have received significant research attention because of their capability to continuously monitor electrophysiological signals from the human body with minimal body motion artifacts, long-term tracking, and comfort for real-time health monitoring. Among the four different sensors, i.e., piezoresistive, piezoelectric, iontronic, and capacitive, capacitive sensors are the most advantageous owing to their reusability, high durability, device sterilization ability, and minimum leakage currents between the electrode and the body to reduce the health risk arising from any short circuit. This review focuses on the development of wearable, flexible capacitive sensors for monitoring electrophysiological conditions, including the electrode materials and configuration, the sensing mechanisms, and the fabrication strategies. In addition, several design strategies of flexible/stretchable electrodes, body-to-electrode signal transduction, and measurements have been critically evaluated. We have also highlighted the gaps and opportunities needed for enhancing the suitability and practical applicability of wearable capacitive sensors. Finally, the potential applications, research challenges, and future research directions on stretchable and wearable capacitive sensors are outlined in this review.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hadaate Ullah
- School of Materials and Energy, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, China
- State Key Laboratory of Electronic Thin Films and Integrated Devices, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, China
| | - Md A. Wahab
- Institute for Advanced Study, Chengdu University, Chengdu 610106, China
- School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Queensland University of Technology, George St Brisbane, GPO Box 2434, Brisbane, QLD 4001, Australia
| | - Geoffrey Will
- School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Queensland University of Technology, George St Brisbane, GPO Box 2434, Brisbane, QLD 4001, Australia
| | - Mohammad R. Karim
- Center of Excellence for Research in Engineering Materials (CEREM), Deanship of Scientific Research (DSR), King Saud University, Riyadh 11421, Saudi Arabia
- K.A. CARE Energy Research and Innovation Center, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia
| | - Taisong Pan
- School of Materials and Energy, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, China
- State Key Laboratory of Electronic Thin Films and Integrated Devices, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, China
| | - Min Gao
- School of Materials and Energy, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, China
- State Key Laboratory of Electronic Thin Films and Integrated Devices, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, China
| | - Dakun Lai
- Biomedical Imaging and Electrophysiology Laboratory, School of Electronic Science and Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, China
| | - Yuan Lin
- School of Materials and Energy, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, China
- State Key Laboratory of Electronic Thin Films and Integrated Devices, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, China
- Medico-Engineering Corporation on Applied Medicine Research Center, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, China
| | - Mahdi H. Miraz
- School of Computing and Data Science, Xiamen University Malaysia, Bandar Sunsuria, Sepang 43900, Malaysia
- School of Computing, Faculty of Arts, Science and Technology, Wrexham Glyndŵr University, Wrexham LL112AW, UK
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Georgas A, Agiannis K, Papakosta V, Priftis P, Angelopoulos S, Ferraro A, Hristoforou E. A Biosensor Platform for Point-of-Care SARS-CoV-2 Screening. BIOSENSORS 2022; 12:bios12070487. [PMID: 35884290 PMCID: PMC9312522 DOI: 10.3390/bios12070487] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/30/2022] [Revised: 06/22/2022] [Accepted: 07/01/2022] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic remains a constant threat to human health, the economy, and social relations. Scientists around the world are constantly looking for new technological tools to deal with the pandemic. Such tools are the rapid virus detection tests, which are constantly evolving and optimizing. This paper presents a biosensor platform for the rapid detection of spike protein both in laboratory conditions and in swab samples from hospitalized patients. It is a continuation and improvement of our previous work and consists of a microcontroller-based readout circuit, which measures the capacitance change generated in an interdigitated electrode transducer by the presence either of sole spike protein or the presence of SARS-CoV-2 particles in swab samples. The circuit efficiency is calibrated by its correlation with the capacitance measurement of an LCR (inductance (L), capacitance (C), and resistance (R)) meter. The test result is made available in less than 2 min through the microcontroller’s LCD (liquid-crystal display) screen, whereas at the same time, the collected data are sent wirelessly to a mobile application interface. The novelty of this research lies in the potential it offers for continuous and effective screening of SARS-CoV-2 patients, which is facilitated and enhanced, providing big data statistics of COVID-19 in terms of space and time. This device can be used by individuals for SARS-CoV-2 testing at home, by health professionals for patient monitoring, and by public health agencies for monitoring the spatio-temporal spread of the virus.
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Force-Invariant Improved Feature Extraction Method for Upper-Limb Prostheses of Transradial Amputees. Diagnostics (Basel) 2021; 11:diagnostics11050843. [PMID: 34067203 PMCID: PMC8151019 DOI: 10.3390/diagnostics11050843] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/27/2021] [Revised: 04/28/2021] [Accepted: 05/05/2021] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
A force-invariant feature extraction method derives identical information for all force levels. However, the physiology of muscles makes it hard to extract this unique information. In this context, we propose an improved force-invariant feature extraction method based on nonlinear transformation of the power spectral moments, changes in amplitude, and the signal amplitude along with spatial correlation coefficients between channels. Nonlinear transformation balances the forces and increases the margin among the gestures. Additionally, the correlation coefficient between channels evaluates the amount of spatial correlation; however, it does not evaluate the strength of the electromyogram signal. To evaluate the robustness of the proposed method, we use the electromyogram dataset containing nine transradial amputees. In this study, the performance is evaluated using three classifiers with six existing feature extraction methods. The proposed feature extraction method yields a higher pattern recognition performance, and significant improvements in accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, precision, and F1 score are found. In addition, the proposed method requires comparatively less computational time and memory, which makes it more robust than other well-known feature extraction methods.
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7
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Dore H, Aviles-Espinosa R, Luo Z, Anton O, Rabe H, Rendon-Morales E. Characterisation of Textile Embedded Electrodes for Use in a Neonatal Smart Mattress Electrocardiography System. SENSORS 2021; 21:s21030999. [PMID: 33540669 PMCID: PMC7867279 DOI: 10.3390/s21030999] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/18/2020] [Revised: 01/18/2021] [Accepted: 01/26/2021] [Indexed: 01/20/2023]
Abstract
Heart rate monitoring is the predominant quantitative health indicator of a newborn in the delivery room. A rapid and accurate heart rate measurement is vital during the first minutes after birth. Clinical recommendations suggest that electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring should be widely adopted in the neonatal intensive care unit to reduce infant mortality and improve long term health outcomes in births that require intervention. Novel non-contact electrocardiogram sensors can reduce the time from birth to heart rate reading as well as providing unobtrusive and continuous monitoring during intervention. In this work we report the design and development of a solution to provide high resolution, real time electrocardiogram data to the clinicians within the delivery room using non-contact electric potential sensors embedded in a neonatal intensive care unit mattress. A real-time high-resolution electrocardiogram acquisition solution based on a low power embedded system was developed and textile embedded electrodes were fabricated and characterised. Proof of concept tests were carried out on simulated and human cardiac signals, producing electrocardiograms suitable for the calculation of heart rate having an accuracy within ±1 beat per minute using a test ECG signal, ECG recordings from a human volunteer with a correlation coefficient of ~ 87% proved accurate beat to beat morphology reproduction of the waveform without morphological alterations and a time from application to heart rate display below 6 s. This provides evidence that flexible non-contact textile-based electrodes can be embedded in wearable devices for assisting births through heart rate monitoring and serves as a proof of concept for a complete neonate electrocardiogram monitoring system.
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Affiliation(s)
- Henry Dore
- Robotics and Mechatronics Systems Research Group, School of Engineering and Informatics, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9RH, UK; (H.D.); (R.A.-E.)
| | - Rodrigo Aviles-Espinosa
- Robotics and Mechatronics Systems Research Group, School of Engineering and Informatics, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9RH, UK; (H.D.); (R.A.-E.)
| | - Zhenhua Luo
- School of Water, Energy and Environment, Cranfield University, Bedford MK43 0AL, UK;
| | - Oana Anton
- Academic Department of Paediatrics, Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital Brighton, Brighton BN2 5BE, UK; (O.A.); (H.R.)
| | - Heike Rabe
- Academic Department of Paediatrics, Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital Brighton, Brighton BN2 5BE, UK; (O.A.); (H.R.)
| | - Elizabeth Rendon-Morales
- Robotics and Mechatronics Systems Research Group, School of Engineering and Informatics, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9RH, UK; (H.D.); (R.A.-E.)
- Correspondence:
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Angelucci A, Cavicchioli M, Cintorrino IA, Lauricella G, Rossi C, Strati S, Aliverti A. Smart Textiles and Sensorized Garments for Physiological Monitoring: A Review of Available Solutions and Techniques. SENSORS (BASEL, SWITZERLAND) 2021; 21:814. [PMID: 33530403 PMCID: PMC7865961 DOI: 10.3390/s21030814] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/21/2020] [Revised: 01/20/2021] [Accepted: 01/22/2021] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
Several wearable devices for physiological and activity monitoring are found on the market, but most of them only allow spot measurements. However, the continuous detection of physiological parameters without any constriction in time or space would be useful in several fields such as healthcare, fitness, and work. This can be achieved with the application of textile technologies for sensorized garments, where the sensors are completely embedded in the fabric. The complete integration of sensors in the fabric leads to several manufacturing techniques that allow dealing with both the technological challenges entailed by the physiological parameters under investigation, and the basic requirements of a garment such as perspiration, washability, and comfort. This review is intended to provide a detailed description of the textile technologies in terms of materials and manufacturing processes employed in the production of sensorized fabrics. The focus is pointed at the technical challenges and the advanced solutions introduced with respect to conventional sensors for recording different physiological parameters, and some interesting textile implementations for the acquisition of biopotentials, respiratory parameters, temperature and sweat are proposed. In the last section, an overview of the main garments on the market is depicted, also exploring some relevant projects under development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alessandra Angelucci
- Dipartimento di Elettronica, Informazione e Bioingegneria, Politecnico di Milano, 20133 Milan, Italy; (M.C.); (I.A.C.); (G.L.); (C.R.); (S.S.); (A.A.)
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9
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Characterization of capacitive electromyography biomedical sensor insulated with porous medical bandages. Sci Rep 2020; 10:14891. [PMID: 32913303 PMCID: PMC7484800 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-71709-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/20/2020] [Accepted: 08/19/2020] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
A capacitive electromyography (cEMG) biomedical sensor measures the EMG signal from human body through capacitive coupling methodology. It has the flexibility to be insulated by different types of materials. Each type of insulator will yield a unique skin–electrode capacitance which determine the performance of a cEMG biomedical sensor. Most of the insulator being explored are solid and non-breathable which cause perspiration in a long-term EMG measurement process. This research aims to explore the porous medical bandages such as micropore, gauze, and crepe bandage to be used as an insulator of a cEMG biomedical sensor. These materials are breathable and hypoallergenic. Their unique properties and characteristics have been reviewed respectively. A 50 Hz digital notch filter was developed and implemented in the EMG measurement system design to further enhance the performance of these porous medical bandage insulated cEMG biomedical sensors. A series of experimental verifications such as noise floor characterization, EMG signals measurement, and performance correlation were done on all these sensors. The micropore insulated cEMG biomedical sensor yielded the lowest noise floor amplitude of 2.44 mV and achieved the highest correlation coefficient result in comparison with the EMG signals captured by the conventional wet contact electrode.
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El Arja S, Jayarathna T, Naik G, Breen P, Gargiulo G. Characterisation of Morphic Sensors for Body Volume and Shape Applications. SENSORS (BASEL, SWITZERLAND) 2019; 20:E90. [PMID: 31877893 PMCID: PMC6983190 DOI: 10.3390/s20010090] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/29/2019] [Revised: 12/16/2019] [Accepted: 12/18/2019] [Indexed: 02/01/2023]
Abstract
Stretchable conductive materials are originally conceived as radio frequency (RF) and electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding materials, and, under stretch, they generally function as distributed strain-gauges. These commercially available conductive elastomers have found their space in low power health monitoring systems, for example, to monitor respiratory and cardiac functions. Conductive elastomers do not behave linearly due to material constraints; hence, when used as a sensor, a full characterisation to identify ideal operating ranges are required. In this paper, we studied how the continuous stretch cycles affected the material electrical and physical properties in different embodiment impressed by bodily volume change. We simulated the stretch associated with breathing using a bespoke stress rig to ensure reproducibility of results. The stretch rig is capable of providing constant sinusoidal waves in the physiological ranges of extension and frequency. The material performances is evaluated assessing the total harmonic distortion (THD), signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), correlation coefficient, peak to peak (P-P) amplitude, accuracy, repeatability, hysteresis, delay, and washability. The results showed that, among the three controlled variables, stretch length, stretch frequency and fabric width, the most significant factor to the signal quality is the stretch length. The ideal working region is within 2% of the original length. The material cut in strips of > 3 show more reliable to handle a variety of stretch parameter without losing its internal characteristics and electrical properties.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sami El Arja
- School of Computing, Engineering and Mathematics, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW 2751, Australia;
| | - Titus Jayarathna
- MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney University, Milperra, NSW 2560, Australia; (G.N.); (P.B.)
| | - Ganesh Naik
- MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney University, Milperra, NSW 2560, Australia; (G.N.); (P.B.)
| | - Paul Breen
- MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney University, Milperra, NSW 2560, Australia; (G.N.); (P.B.)
- Translational Health Research Institute, Western Sydney University, Campbelltown, NSW 2560, Australia
| | - Gaetano Gargiulo
- School of Computing, Engineering and Mathematics, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW 2751, Australia;
- MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney University, Milperra, NSW 2560, Australia; (G.N.); (P.B.)
- Translational Health Research Institute, Western Sydney University, Campbelltown, NSW 2560, Australia
- School of Psychiatry and Ingham Institute of Applied Medical Research, University of New South Wales, Liverpool, NSW 2052, Australia
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11
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Soroudi A, Hernández N, Berglin L, Nierstrasz V. Electrode placement in electrocardiography smart garments: A review. J Electrocardiol 2019; 57:27-30. [PMID: 31473476 DOI: 10.1016/j.jelectrocard.2019.08.015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/19/2019] [Revised: 08/09/2019] [Accepted: 08/21/2019] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Abstract
Wearable Electrocardiography (ECG) sensing textiles have been widely used due to their high flexibility, comfort, reusability and the possibility to be used for home-based and real-time measurements. Textile electrodes are dry and non-adhesive, therefor unlike conventional gel electrodes, they don't cause skin irritation and are more user-friendly especially for long-term and continuous monitoring outside the hospital. However, the challenge with textile electrodes is that the quality and reliability of recorded ECG signals by smart garments are more sensitive to different factors such as electrode placement, skin humidity, user activities and contact pressure. This review will particularly focus on the research findings regarding the influence of electrode placement on the quality of biosignal sensing, and will introduce the methods used by researchers to measure the optimal positions of the electrodes in wearable ECG garments. The review will help the designers to take into account different parameters, which affect the data quality, reliability and comfort, when selecting the electrode placement in a wearable ECG garment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Azadeh Soroudi
- Textile Materials Technology, Department of Textile Technology, Faculty of Textiles, Engineering and Business, University of Boras, 501 90 Boras, Sweden.
| | - Niina Hernández
- Textile Materials Technology, Department of Textile Technology, Faculty of Textiles, Engineering and Business, University of Boras, 501 90 Boras, Sweden
| | - Lena Berglin
- Textile Materials Technology, Department of Textile Technology, Faculty of Textiles, Engineering and Business, University of Boras, 501 90 Boras, Sweden
| | - Vincent Nierstrasz
- Textile Materials Technology, Department of Textile Technology, Faculty of Textiles, Engineering and Business, University of Boras, 501 90 Boras, Sweden
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12
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Roland T, Wimberger K, Amsuess S, Russold MF, Baumgartner W. An Insulated Flexible Sensor for Stable Electromyography Detection: Applicationto Prosthesis Control. SENSORS 2019; 19:s19040961. [PMID: 30813504 PMCID: PMC6412514 DOI: 10.3390/s19040961] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/11/2019] [Revised: 02/05/2019] [Accepted: 02/16/2019] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Electromyography (EMG), the measurement of electrical muscle activity, is used in a variety of applications, including myoelectric upper-limb prostheses, which help amputees to regain independence and a higher quality of life. The state-of-the-art sensors in prostheses have a conductive connection to the skin and are therefore sensitive to sweat and require preparation of the skin. They are applied with some pressure to ensure a conductive connection, which may result in pressure marks and can be problematic for patients with circulatory disorders, who constitute a major group of amputees. Due to their insulating layer between skin and sensor area, capacitive sensors are insensitive to the skin condition, they require neither conductive connection to the skin nor electrolytic paste or skin preparation. Here, we describe a highly stable, low-power capacitive EMG measurement set-up that is suitable for real-world application. Various flexible multi-layer sensor set-ups made of copper and insulating foils, flex print and textiles were compared. These flexible sensor set-ups adapt to the anatomy of the human forearm, therefore they provide high wearing comfort and ensure stability against motion artifacts. The influence of the materials used in the sensor set-up on the magnitude of the coupled signal was demonstrated based on both theoretical analysis and measurement.The amplifier circuit was optimized for high signal quality, low power consumption and mobile application. Different shielding and guarding concepts were compared, leading to high SNR.
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Affiliation(s)
- Theresa Roland
- Institute of Biomedical Mechatronics, Johannes Kepler University, 4040 Linz, Austria.
| | - Kerstin Wimberger
- Institute of Biomedical Mechatronics, Johannes Kepler University, 4040 Linz, Austria.
| | - Sebastian Amsuess
- Research and Development, Otto Bock Healthcare Products GmbH, 1110 Vienna, Austria.
| | | | - Werner Baumgartner
- Institute of Biomedical Mechatronics, Johannes Kepler University, 4040 Linz, Austria.
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