Advanced Medical Electronics Corporation (AME) proposes to develop a 16 node wireless surface electro-myography (EMG) system, including a custom integrated circuit (IC), for research and clinical applications. The study of muscular activation patterns has been widely used for clinical purposes and has proven to be a useful tool for investigating neurological pathologies in pediatric and adult populations including ataxia, dystonia and Parkinson's disease. The current state-of-the-art for wireless EMG applications is a collection of EMG sensors wired to a body-worn amplifier and transmitter device in a star topology. The connecting wires, which are secured to the body, may (1) restrict body movement, especially with children, and (2) add noise and/or motion artifacts. Sensors based on the proposed integrated circuit will not suffer from these limitations since they will locally amplify, digitize, and transmit digital EMG signals without the need for wires, which is of particular importance in dynamic EMG measurements where the subject is in motion. Recent advances in IC technology enable AME to design and fabricate wireless EMG nodes that integrate the functions of EMG sensing, signal conditioning, digitizing, wireless transmission, and power sourcing into a very small electrode package. An electrode package held to the skin by adhesive will be able to transmit the data via a wireless network to a data collection PC. The system will implement a network protocol that will support up to 16 independent wireless EMG sensors. In phase I, AME has completely specified the IC requirements, designed the analog building block circuits, designed a custom wireless network protocol, and performed simulations of the analog IC and wireless protocol. In phase II, AME, with its partners, will build a production prototype wireless EMG system, and verify its performance in a human study. This project's innovation stems from AME's ability to integrate all the functions necessary to perform wireless EMG data collection onto a miniature node. This device will support detailed human neurological studies, which support numerous research areas including, but not limited to, ataxia, dystonia, and Parkinson's disease.
