Review on electromyography signal acquisition and processing

Abstract

Electromyography (EMG) is a technique for recording biomedical electrical signals obtained from the neuromuscular activities. These signals are used to monitor medical abnormalities and activation levels, and also to analyze the biomechanics of any animal movements. In this article, we provide a short review of EMG signal acquisition and processing techniques. The average efficiency of capture of EMG signals with current technologies is around 70%. Once the signal is captured, signal processing algorithms then determine the recognition accuracy, with which signals are decoded for their corresponding purpose (e.g., moving robotic arm, speech recognition, gait analysis). The recognition accuracy can go as high as 99.8%. The accuracy with which the EMG signal is decoded has already crossed 99%, and with improvements in deep learning technology, there is a large scope for improvement in the design hardware that can efficiently capture EMG signals.