Date: Monday, March 20, 2023
Category: Buzz Session
For patients using a powered wheelchair without sufficient functionality of their hands, a traditional joystick will not provide function for steering and control. This situation may be indicative of conditions such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, or quadriplegia, and result in a struggle to control their mobility devices. This research team has developed a new control interface, which leverages electromyography (EMG) sensors attached to the face muscles to control steering of the wheelchair by subtle jaw flexes. This interface was evaluated in a clinical trial at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, of which the results have been published and will be presented. The findings demonstrated the feasibility and promise of a novel interface, but also spoke to the training challenges. To improve training, a novel EMG (mobility) and eye tracking (hands-free calibration) based game was developed for low stress and risk practice to develop precise control of the system.
Learning Objectives:
- Learners will list three applications of surface EMG for bio-sensing. and describe list three different applications of surface EMG for bio-sensingthe technology.
- Session participants will describe appropriate electrode placement.