Wearable systems capable to capture vital signs allow the development of advanced medical applications. One notable example is the use of surface electromyography (EMG) to gather muscle activation potentials, in principle an easy input for prosthesis control. However, the acquisition of such signals is affected by high variability and ground loop problems. Moreover, the input impedance influenced in time by motion and perspiration determines an offset, which can be orders of magnitude higher than the signal of interest. We propose a wearable device equipped with a digitally controlled Analog Front End (AFE) for biopotentials acquisition with zero-offset. The proposed AFE solution has an internal Digital to Analog Converter (DAC) used to adjust independently the reference of each channel removing any DC offset. The analog integrated circuit is coupled with a microcontroller, which periodically estimates the offset and implements a closed loop feedback on the analog part. The proposed approach was tested on EMG signals acquired from 4 subjects while performing different activities and shows that the system correctly acquires signals with no DC offset.

Digitally controlled feedback for DC offset cancellation in a wearable multichannel EMG platform

Milosevic, Bojan;Farella, Elisabetta;
2015-01-01

Abstract

Wearable systems capable to capture vital signs allow the development of advanced medical applications. One notable example is the use of surface electromyography (EMG) to gather muscle activation potentials, in principle an easy input for prosthesis control. However, the acquisition of such signals is affected by high variability and ground loop problems. Moreover, the input impedance influenced in time by motion and perspiration determines an offset, which can be orders of magnitude higher than the signal of interest. We propose a wearable device equipped with a digitally controlled Analog Front End (AFE) for biopotentials acquisition with zero-offset. The proposed AFE solution has an internal Digital to Analog Converter (DAC) used to adjust independently the reference of each channel removing any DC offset. The analog integrated circuit is coupled with a microcontroller, which periodically estimates the offset and implements a closed loop feedback on the analog part. The proposed approach was tested on EMG signals acquired from 4 subjects while performing different activities and shows that the system correctly acquires signals with no DC offset.
2015
978-1-4244-9271-8
978-1-4244-9271-8
File in questo prodotto:
Non ci sono file associati a questo prodotto.

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11582/301824
Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
social impact