An Improved Compound Gaussian Model for Bivariate Surface EMG Signals Related to Strength Training

Recent literature suggests that the surface electromyography (sEMG) signals have non-stationary statistical characteristics specifically due to random nature of the covariance. Thus suitability of a statistical model for sEMG signals is determined by the choice of an appropriate model for describing the covariance. The purpose of this study is to propose a Compound-Gaussian (CG) model for multivariate sEMG signals in which latent variable of covariance is modeled as a random variable that follows an exponential model. The parameters of the model are estimated using the iterative Expectation Maximization (EM) algorithm. Further, a new dataset, electromyography analysis of human activities database 2 (EMAHA-DB2) is developed. Based on the model fitting analysis on the sEMG signals from EMAHA-DB2, it is found that the proposed CG model fits more closely to the empirical pdf of sEMG signals than the existing models. The proposed model is validated by visual inspection, further validated by matching central moments and better quantitative metrics in comparison with other models. The proposed compound model provides an improved fit to the statistical behavior of sEMG signals. Further, the estimate of rate parameter of the exponential model shows clear relation to the training weights. Finally, the average signal power estimates of the channels shows distinctive dependency on the training weights, the subject's training experience and the type of activity.Comment: This article supersedes arXiv:2301.05417. This work has been submitted to the IEEE for possible publication. Copyright may be transferred without notice, after which this version may no longer be accessibl

Effect of optimal filtering parameters for autoregressive model AR(p) on motor unit action potential signal

Error is one element of the autoregressive (AR) model, which is supposed to be white noise. Correspondingly assumption that white noise error is a normal distribution in electromyography (EMG) estimation is one of the common causes for error maximization. This paper presents the effect of a suitable choice of filtering function based on the non-invasive analysis properties of motor unit action potential signal, extracted from a non-invasive method-the high spatial resolution (HSR) electromyography (EMG), recorded during low-level isometric muscle contractions. The final prediction error procedure is used to find the number of parameters in the model. The error signal parameter, the simulated deviation from the actual signals, is suitably filtered to obtain optimally appropriate estimates of the parameters of the automatic regression model. It is filtered to acquire optimally appropriate estimates of the parameters of the automatic regression model. Then appropriate estimates of spectral power shapes are obtained with a high degree of efficiency compared with the robust method under investigation. Extensive experiment results for the proposed technique have shown that it provides a robust and reliable calculation of model parameters. Moreover, estimates of power spectral profiles were evaluated efficiently

Recursive decomposition of electromyographic signals with a varying number of active sources: Bayesian modelling and filtering

International audienceThis paper describes a sequential decomposition algorithm for single channel intramuscular electromyography (iEMG) generated by a varying number of active motor neurons. As in previous work, we establish a Hidden Markov Model of iEMG, in which each motor neuron spike train is modeled as a renewal process with inter-spike intervals following a discrete Weibull law and motor unit action potentials are modeled as impulse responses of linear time-invariant systems with known prior. We then expand this model by introducing an activation vector associated to the state vector of the Hidden Markov Model. This activation vector represents recruitment/derecruitment of motor units and is estimated together with the state vector using Bayesian filtering. Non-stationarity of the model parameters is addressed by means of a sliding window approach, thus making the algorithm adaptive to variations in contraction force and motor unit action potential waveforms. The algorithm was validated using simulated and experimental iEMG signals with varying number of active motor units. The experimental signals were acquired from the tibialis anterior and abductor digiti minimi muscles by fine wire and needle electrodes. The decomposition accuracy in both simulated and experimental signals exceeded 90% and the recruitment/derecruitment was successfully tracked by the algorithm. Because of its parallel structure, this algorithm can be efficiently accelerated, which lays the basis for its future real-time applications in human-machine interfaces, e.g. for prosthetic control

Predicting 3D lip shapes using facial surface EMG

Aim The aim of this study is to prove that facial surface electromyography (sEMG) conveys sufficient information to predict 3D lip shapes. High sEMG predictive accuracy implies we could train a neural control model for activation of biomechanical models by simultaneously recording sEMG signals and their associated motions. Materials and methods With a stereo camera set-up, we recorded 3D lip shapes and simultaneously performed sEMG measurements of the facial muscles, applying principal component analysis (PCA) and a modified general regression neural network (GRNN) to link the sEMG measurements to 3D lip shapes. To test reproducibility, we conducted our experiment on five volunteers, evaluating several sEMG features and window lengths in unipolar and bipolar configurations in search of the optimal settings for facial sEMG. Conclusions The errors of the two methods were comparable. We managed to predict 3D lip shapes with a mean accuracy of 2.76 mm when using the PCA method and 2.78 mm when using modified GRNN. Whereas performance improved with shorter window lengths, feature type and configuration had little influence