Smart EMG-based Socks for Leg Muscles Contraction Assessment

Surface electromyography (sEMG) increasingly plays an important role for prevention, diagnosis and rehabilitation in healthcare field. In this context, the continuous monitoring of the electrical potentials produced by muscles appears to be effective to detect abnormal events in a fast way. The recent progresses in EMG technologies have allowed for the development of low invasive and reliable EMG-based wearable device. These devices promote long-term monitoring, however they are often very expensive and not easy to be positioned appropriately. Moreover they use mono-use pre-gelled electrodes that can cause skin redness. To overcome the issues, a prototype of a new smart sock has been realized. It detects EMG signals coming from the Gastrocnemius-Tibialis muscles of the leg. Such muscles appear relevant for assessment of age-related changes in gait, sarcopenia pathology, postural anomalies, fall risk, etc. The developed socks are minimally invasive, lightweight and can send the data through a Bluetooth low energy connection. Moreover, they are equipped with reusable stretchable and non adhesive hybrid polymer electrolytes-based electrodes for high biocompatibility. In the paper it has been described, as a case study, the use of the socks to detect the risk of falling.