A low cost Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) system for essential tremor suppression using off the shelf components

Abstract

Essential tremor (ET) is one of the most common movement disorders that causes a rhythmic trembling of the hands, head, voice, legs or trunk. Currently, no medication is specifically designed to treat ET, However, some solutions exist to temporarily suppress tremor. This paper presents a novel low cost alternative to the existing solutions, known as Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) and its comparison with existing solutions. The paper focuses on the development of a low cost FES circuit with Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) feedback using off the shelf components which sends out-of-phase electrical pulses to suppress tremor.