Data acquisition, conditioning and processing system for a wearable-based biostimulation

Data acquisition by electromyography, as well as the muscle stimulation, has become more accessible with the new developments in the wearable technology and medicine. In fact, for treatments, games or sports, it is possible to find examples of the use of muscle signals to analyse specific aspects related, e.g., to disease, injuries or movement impulses. However, these systems are usually expensive, does not integrate data acquisition with the muscle stimulation and does not exhibit an adaptive control behaviour that consider the pathology and the patient response. This paper presents a wearable system that integrates the signal acquisition and the electrostimulation using dry thin-film titanium-based electrodes. The acquired data is transmitted to a mobile application running on a smartphone by using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology, where it is analysed by employing artificial intelligence algorithms to provide customised treatments for each patient profile and type of pathology, and taking into consideration the feedback of the acquired electromyography signal. The acquired patient’s data is also stored in a secure cloud database to support the physician to analyse and follow-up the clinical results from the rehabilitation process.This work was supported by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the Operational Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalization (COMPETE 2020), under Portugal 2020 in the framework of the NanoStim - Nanomaterials for wearable-based integrated biostimulation (POCI-01- 0247-FEDER-045908) project.