Validation of a low-cost Electromyography (EMG) system via a commercial and accurate EMG device : pilot study

Fuentes del Toro, S; Wei, Y; Olmeda, E; Ren, L; Wei, G; Díaz, V

Abstract

Electromyography (EMG) devices are well-suited for measuring the behaviour of muscles during an exercise or a task, and are widely used in many different research areas. Their disadvantage is that commercial systems are expensive. We designed a low-cost EMG system with enough accuracy and reliability to be used in a wide range of possible ways. The present article focuses on the validation of the low-cost system we designed, which is compared with a commercially available, accurate device. The evaluation was done by means of a set of experiments, in which volunteers performed isometric and dynamic exercises while EMG signals from the rectus femoris muscle were registered by both the proposed low-cost system and a commercial system simultaneously. Analysis and assessment of three indicators to estimate the similarity between both signals were developed. These indicated a very good result, with spearman’s correlation averaging above 0.60, the energy ratio close to the 80% and the linear correlation coefficient approximating 100%. The agreement between both systems (custom and commercial) is excellent, although there are also some limitations, such as the delay of the signal (1 s) and noise due to the hardware and assembly in the proposed system.

Citation

Fuentes del Toro, S., Wei, Y., Olmeda, E., Ren, L., Wei, G., & Díaz, V. (2019). Validation of a low-cost Electromyography (EMG) system via a commercial and accurate EMG device : pilot study. Sensors, 19(23), e5214. https://doi.org/10.3390/s19235214

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Nov 26, 2019
• Publication Date: Nov 28, 2019
• Deposit Date: Dec 3, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Dec 3, 2019
• Journal: Sensors
• Publisher: MDPI
• Volume: 19
• Issue: 23
• Pages: e5214
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/s19235214
• Keywords: low-cost sensors, electromyography, validation
• Publisher URL: https://doi.org/10.3390/s19235214
• Related Public URLs: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sensors
• Additional Information: Additional Information : ** From MDPI via Jisc Publications Router ** Licence for this article: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ **Journal IDs: eissn 1424-8220 **History: published 28-11-2019; accepted 26-11-2019