Design of a wireless miniature low cost EMG sensor using gold plated dry electrodes for biomechanics research

EMG sensors for biomechanics research and portable applications need to be small, wireless and power efficient. This imposes several constraints on the design methodology of such sensors. There are many commercially available devices which are expensive and have proprietary communication protocols. It is difficult to synchronize them with other devices. Furthermore, using gel-based electrodes for signal acquisition increases setup time and running costs. Hence we present the design of a miniaturized, wireless, low-cost and non-invasive dry-electrode EMG sensor that was prototyped in our lab and dubbed the WB-EMG Sensor. We demonstrate its working being fitted with a gold plated copper core electrode. By mounting the sensor on the extensor carpi ulnaris and recording data during some simple exercises, we were able to show that its envelope in the frequency domain was similar to the expected EMG Pattern.