Muscular-electronic control system for artificial limb - uses sensors applied to skin to sense electrical impulses for processing to drive motors through comparison with code

摘要

A number of voltage sensors (1,2) are applied against the skin to sense the electrical impulses for the muscles. The sensor outputs are amplified (3) and filtered (4) to eliminate parasitic signals from the mains supply. The filter output is rectified (5) and passes through an active low pass filter to a linear filtering stage (6) with a large time constant. These signals are connected by an A/D converter (7) to a discriminator (8) where they are compared. The discriminator also compares the signals with a predetermined coded function to move the respective motor assemblies. The discriminator outputs pass through D/A converters (9) and linear filters (11) with a large time constant to drive the respective motors. The system uses myoelectrical signals which are obtained by the actuation of facial muscles, esp. in the forehead and the nasal areas.