Estimating Upper Arm sEMG from Wrist PPG

Abstract

The surface electromyogram (sEMG) involves the acquisition of muscle-action potentials transmitted by volume conduction from the skin. Surface electrodes require disposable conductive gel or adhesive tape to be attached to the skin, which is costly, and the tape may damage the skin when it is removed. This paper proposes a method for recognizing the muscle-activity state of the arm and a method for estimating sEMG using pulse-wave data (photoplethysmography). From an evaluation experiment with five participants, three types of muscle activity were recognized with 75+% accuracy and sEMG was estimated with approximately 20% error rate.