Building an EMG Receiver System to Control a Peripheral Device

Abstract

Electromyogram (EMG)—called myoelectric activity—representing the neuromuscular activity measuring electrical currents in the muscle. The current related studies show the potentials in applications of controlling peripheral devices, especially for handicapped people. This paper demonstrates a low-cost and non-invasive EMG acquisition system that collects and amplifies EMG signals from three surface EMG electrodes. The process of the acquired signal consists of 4 stages: amplification, filter, rectification, and low pass filter. The system also has an accelerometer sensor to detect hand movements, which improves the flexibility of control. Next, the processed signal is then analyzed and digitalized by a microcontroller (Arduino) to manipulate the external appliance, which can lead to further researches and studies to perform the application on other devices. For initial results, the system has been tested with 16 male and 15 female volunteers to validate the accuracy of the EMG sensor as well as compared it to EMG sensor in NI Toolkit. The results show both high accuracy and sensitivity of the designed system. The final product contains EMG acquisition system and code source for bio-signal processing and controlling the peripheral device.