Highly precise surface electromyography recording based on conformal electrodes for flexible device

Abstract

One of the most sophisticated system in the universe is the biological system, which is often difficult to learn and to understand. The movement of human or animals as example, they involve the activation, coordination and control of muscle force. However, it is important to understand and measure the signal produced the biological system. It can provide information that is useful for many research fields, such as, gesture recognition, muscle monitoring and conditioning, prosthetic application, medical rehabilitation or even more complex, human-machine interface. Electromyography (EMG) is a technique used to monitor and record the electrical behaviour of skeletal muscles which help to study and understand the behaviour of signal produced by biological system. In this report, we improve the electrode used in surface electromyography, we show the fabrication of Alg-PAAm based stretchable electrode, comparison of the mechanical and electrical properties of commercial electrode and Alg-PAAm electrode. Furthermore, the effect of adhesion force, degree of conformance (behaviour of materials to follow the movement of the skin and form good contact with the skin) and electrical impedance of the gel to the quality of signal measured were investigated. It was observed that Alg-PAAm electrode have a better adhesion and electrode-skin conformance which lead to lower electrode-skin impedance and higher signal to noise ratio. Lastly, to check the actual performance of Alg-PAAm stretchable electrode, a demo of face facial muscle monitoring using the Alg-PAAm electrode to measure the muscle activity of depressor labii orils and digastric (cheek and chin muscle respectively) while talking motion is performed. It shows that the signal recorded using Alg-PAAm has better quality, lesser noise and more precise compared to commercial electrode.