Biopotential Signal Monitoring Systems in Rehabilitation: A Review

Abstract

Monitoring physical activity in medical and clinical rehabilitation, in sports environments or as a wellness indicator is helpful to measure, analyze and evaluate physiological parameters involving the correct subject’s movements. Thanks to integrated circuit (IC) technologies, wearable sensors and portable devices have expanded rapidly in monitoring physical activities in sports and tele-rehabilitation. Therefore, sensors and signal acquisition devices became essential in the tele-rehabilitation path to obtain accurate and reliable information by analyzing the acquired physiological signals. In this context, this paper provides a state-of-the-art review of the recent advances in electroencephalogram (EEG), electrocardiogram (ECG) and electromyogram (EMG) signal monitoring systems and sensors that are relevant to the field of tele-rehabilitation and health monitoring. Mostly, we focused our contribution in EMG signals to highlight its importance in rehabilitation context applications. This review focuses on analyzing the implementation of sensors and biomedical applications both in literature than in commerce. Moreover, a final review discussion about the analyzed solutions is also reported at the end of this paper to highlight the advantages of physiological monitoring systems in rehabilitation and individuate future advancements in this direction. The main contributions of this paper are (i) the presentation of interesting works in the biomedical area, mainly focusing on sensors and systems for physical rehabilitation and health monitoring between 2016 and up-to-date, and (ii) the indication of the main types of commercial sensors currently being used for biomedical applications.

A Review of EMG-, FMG-, and EIT-Based Biosensors and Relevant Human–Machine Interactivities and Biomedical Applications

“…EMG signal is a good tool in many medical and clinical applications, for example, to evaluate physical condition, diagnose movement disorders, and assist in the rehabilitation of the disabled [ 143 ]. In this section, we will review the development of EMG in the medical and clinical fields.…”

“…Some companies, such as BioSemi instrumentation, Shimmer, and Biometrics Ltd., provide EMG sensors with lightweight, multi-channel, and high signal-to-noise ratios. Several new EMG instruments (e.g., FreeEMG) and EMG medical analysis kits (e.g., Biosignalssplux) have also been produced [ 143 ].…”

An FPGA-Embedded Brain-Computer Interface System to Support Individual Autonomy in Locked-In Individuals

“…These BCI systems are based on the use of personal computers. They, however, are neither compact nor portable because the EEG signal is amplified and conditioned with commercial amplifiers, and the algorithms for features extraction and classification work on personal computers; in this way, these systems cannot be used conveniently in hospitals or at home [ 35 , 36 ]. Instead, parameters such as energy consumption, size, robustness, portability, and reconfiguration must be considered to make the BCI system an effective communication and control device.…”

Design of a Multi-Sensors Wearable Platform for Remote Monitoring of Knee Rehabilitation

“…However, only a few studies so far have additionally employed electromyography (EMG) [14], thus also allowing clinicians the possibility of acquiring insights on the neuromuscular system [15]. Despite the important application of surface EMG in rehabilitation (for example, to analyze 93 muscle dysfunction, incorrect or anomalous muscle pattern 94 activation, or muscular fatigue) [16], most of the research 95 involving EMG in a rehabilitation context focused on sce-96 narios such as neurorehabilitation, stroke, pain detection, etc. 97 and generally focusing on upper limbs [16], [17].…”

“…Despite the important application of surface EMG in rehabilitation (for example, to analyze 93 muscle dysfunction, incorrect or anomalous muscle pattern 94 activation, or muscular fatigue) [16], most of the research 95 involving EMG in a rehabilitation context focused on sce-96 narios such as neurorehabilitation, stroke, pain detection, etc. 97 and generally focusing on upper limbs [16], [17]. EMG have 98 also been adopted to trigger feedback controls to activate VR-99 based rehabilitation training systems [18], or robotic treat-100 ments [19], again on the upper limbs.…”