Electromyography and Inertial Motion Sensors Based Wearable Data Acquisition System for Stroke Patients: A Pilot Study

Development of wearable data acquisition systems with applications to human-machine interaction (HMI) is of great interest to assist stroke patients or people with motor disabilities. This paper proposes a hybrid wireless data acquisition system, which combines surface electromyography (sEMG) and inertial measurement unit (IMU) sensors. It is designed to interface wrist extension with external devices, which allows the user to operate devices with hand orientations. A pilot study of the system performed on four healthy subjects has successfully produced two different control signals corresponding to wrist extensions. Preliminary results show a high correlation (0.42-0.75) between sEMG and IMU signals, thus proving the feasibility of such a system. Results also show that the developed system is robust as well as less susceptible to external interferences. The generated control signals can be used to perform real-time control of different devices in daily-life activities, such as turning ON/OFF of lights in a smart home, controlling an electric wheelchair, and other assistive devices. Such a system will help decrease the dependency of disabled people on their caretakers and empower them to perform their daily-life activities independently.