Psycho-physiological training approach for amputee rehabilitation

Electromyography (EMG) signals are very noisy and difficult to acquire. Conventional techniques involve amplification and filtering through analog circuits, which makes the system very unstable. The surface EMG signals lie in the frequency range of 6Hz to 600Hz, and the dominant range is between the ranges from 20Hz to 150Hz. 1 Our project aimed to analyze an EMG signal effectively over its complete frequency range. To remove these defects, we designed what we think is an easy, effective, and reliable signal processing technique. We did spectrum analysis, so as to perform all the processing such as amplification, filtering, and thresholding on an Arduino Uno board, hence removing the need for analog amplifiers and filtering circuits, which have stability issues. The conversion of time domain to frequency domain of any signal gives a detailed data of the signal set. Our main aim is to use this useful data for an alternative methodology for rehabilitation called a psychophysiological approach to rehabilitation in prosthesis, which can reduce the cost of the myoelectric arm, as well as increase its efficiency. This method allows the user to gain control over their muscle sets in a less stressful environment. Further, we also have described how our approach is viable and can benefit the rehabilitation process. We used our DSP EMG signals to play an online game and showed how this approach can be used in rehabilitation.