EMG Sensor integration based on Two-Dimensional Communication

We have proposed a new communication technology called “Two-Dimensional Communication (2DC)” in our previous studies. The technology enables one to integrate sensor units on a flexible and stretchable sheet without individual wires. Electrical power is also supplied through the sheet to the sensor nodes in contact with it. This technology considered to be useful for room-size sensor network, wearable computing and so on. Last year, we proposed an electromyography-based man machine interface as a possible application of the 2DC. A myoelectric signal is the signal that can be detected when the muscle contraction occurs. One feature is that the myoelectric signals can be obtained before actual motions. Thus the system can predict motions of the fingers when the myoelectric signal pattern is measured on forearm. It is considered that a high-density electrode array is required for improving the accuracy of the motion estimation. Therefore, the 2DC technology is useful for integrating such a large number of the EMG sensor units without complicated wires. In this paper, we show how to connect sensors to the sheet efficiently without electrical contact. We also demonstrate how to send data and how to receive electricity with the single 2DC sheet. We adopt a time division multiplexing (TDM) method for reducing interferences. We show an electrical circuit for achieving TDM with low power consumption.