EMG detection and processing for Event Detection

Neha Hooda, Neelesh Kumar

Biomedical Instrumentation Unit, CSIR-CSIO, Chandigarh, India

Abstract:

INTRODUCTION
The human body is composed of various types of cells fundamental for
the life. One of these is the myocyte, found in muscle tissues present in
most of the living beings. These tissues have the ability to extend or
contract based upon the neural stimuli they receive from the brain.
Muscle tissues perform both the functions i.e. involuntary movement of
internal body organs and voluntary production of external force or
motion. They are responsible for hand movement and grasping, postural
control as well as locomotion. Three types of muscle tissues are
identified in humans named: cardiac muscle, smooth muscle and skeletal
muscle.
The skeletal muscle tissue is attached to the bone and is the one supplied
with neuronal impulses to generate contractions responsible for skeletal
movement. These are the only type of muscle that come under voluntary
control and hence used for movement detection and processing.
The skeletal muscle tissue is attached to
the bone and its contraction is responsible for supporting
and moving the skeleton. The contraction of skeletal
muscle is initiated by impulses in the neurons to the
muscle and is usually under voluntary control. Skeletal
muscle fibers are well-supplied with neurons for its
contraction. This particular type of neuron is called a
motor neuron and it approaches close to muscle tissue,
but is not actually connected to it. One motor neuron
usually supplies stimulation to many muscle fibers.

The development of EMG started as early as 1666 when Francesco Redis documented the electricity generation by
the specialized muscle of the electric ray fish. As the research progressed, Dubios-Raymond discovered the
possibility of recording electrical activity during a voluntary muscle contraction in 1849 but the actual acquisition
was not done until the end of 19th century. Marey in 1890 introduced the term electromyography abbreviated EMG
now a days [1]. It is a non-invasive procedure of electrical stimulus estimation corresponding to the event detection
in human body. Clinical use of surface EMG (sEMG) for the treatment of more specific disorders began in the
1960s. EMG records the combination of the muscle fiber action potentials from all the muscle fibers of a single
motor unit using skin surface electrodes (non-invasive) placed near this field. Individual muscle fiber action
potentials can be acquired using needle electrodes placed directly in the muscle but it is an invasive procedure.
inserted in the muscle (3). Equation 1 shows a simple
model of the EMG signal:

=+
1
0
()()()()
N
r
x n h r e n r w n (1)
where x(n), modeled EMG signal, e(n), point processed,
represents the firing impulse, h(r), represents the MUAP,
w(n), zero mean addictive white Gaussian noise and N is
the number of motor unit firings.
Hardyck and his researchers were the
first (1966) practitioners to use sEMG (5). In the early
1980s, Cram and Steger introduced a clinical method for
scanning a variety of muscles using an EMG sensing
device (5).
In
1922, Gasser and Erlanger used an oscilloscope to show

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