Wireless Surface Electromyography.

Surface Electromyography (sEMG) is used in the evaluation of muscle activation patterns during body movements. Artefacts in sEMG-signals and analysis are caused by the movements of the cables between the sensor and electrode. Hence, there already exist some pre-amplified and wireless sEMG electrodes. These deliver black box devices to end users, for commercial reasons. However, there is a demand for open source devices from a research perspectives. This paper explores the development of an open source wireless sEMG device that distributes the processing of the raw sEMG data between the wireless electrode and the researcher's computing device. In cooperation with CSEM Landquart (CH) the possibility for the use of electrode-printing technology will be evaluated. We show that Bluetooth Low Energy has a high potential as a low power wireless communication protocol in this application, but that further improvement of the signal-to-noise ratio is necessary.