Rehabilitation process using electromyography and biofeedback

Abstract

A good rehabilitation routine is essential for the best possible recovery after an injury or to increase the quality of life of those who suffer from neuromusculoskeletal diseases. It is of particular relevance to maintain the motivation throughout all the process, for which videogames may play an essential role. Biofeedback is a process that provides real time information from psychophysiological recordings about the levels at which physiological systems are functioning. In this project the biofeedback system has been implemented by means of a low-cost EMG system created using Arduino. The EMG system has been developed using an Olimexino-328 microcontroller and an EMG-Shield, both from Olimex. The program was developed using Arduino IDE. To assess the quality of the signal of the prototype, it was compared to a professional EMG device, the DataLog from Biometrics Ltd. The comparison showed promising results although it could be improved by means of post-processing algorithms. An audio-visual Biofeedback system targeting maximum strength and explosiveness of the muscles was created using Python. Flappy Bird game commands were changed to control them with the EMG low-cost prototype. The flap logic of the game is guided by a threshold fixed automatically by the software at the 60% of the maximum signal obtained by the EMG system. The system was tested to optimize its performance and fix possible flaws. Although it is simple and further investigation may be needed, having in mind the fewer resources used, the system performance is encouraging, and a clinical trial should be performed to assess its real behaviour, usefulness, and efficiency for rehabilitation purposes.