16-channel 500-Hz video-synchronized EMG data acquisition

A new video-synchronized 16-channel electromyography (EMG) data acquisition system was developed to increase the acquired signal frequency bandwidth. The system records human motion images onto a video tape, and simultaneously acquires EMG data along with the binary video time-code stream onto a computer hard drive. In realtime, the computer decodes the video time codes and creates a two-column time-code bridge file which matches the decoded video frame numbers with the corresponding index numbers of the acquired data at each of the video frame begins. With the bridge file, given a frame of recorded video on the TV monitor, the system is able automatically display a frame of the corresponding 16-channel data segment on the computer monitor, or vice versa. Currently, this system is capable of acquiring 30 minutes of 16-channel video-synchronized EMG data with a frequency bandwidth of 500 Hz per channel and a data resolution of 11-bits.