Development of Wireless Pneumatic Myography Sensor for Real-time Muscle Contraction Measurement

In many research areas, such as biomedical engineering, rehabilitation medicine, and sports science, electromyography (EMG) is used as a key indicator of muscle activity. While EMG provides information about active muscle activation, it does not provide information on passive activation. Muscle contraction is the result of active and passive actuation. Muscle contractions are directly related to muscle strength and provide a general understanding of muscle performance. In this paper, a real-time muscle contraction observation method using pneumatic myography (pMMG) is introduced. A modular system was developed to measure pMMG wirelessly for comparison with EMG signals. As a result, the proposed method allowed observation of activation-independent muscle contractions, including manual contractions/extensions or stationary contractions. Experimental results of real-time terminal swing phase detection of gait using the proposed methodology were also introduced.