Biomedical Signal Processing / Medical Signal Processing / Biosignal Processing
Sanaz Ahmadzadeh; Hamid Reza Kobravi; Saeed Tosizadeh
Volume 8, Issue 3 , September 2014, , Pages 293-304
Abstract
Multiple muscle groups may be activated simultaneously during the most of activities. So, the appropriate muscle coordination must be emerged during a normal activity. Consequaently, for rehabilitation of movements such as hand writing and paiting in patients for example suffering from carpal channel ...
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Multiple muscle groups may be activated simultaneously during the most of activities. So, the appropriate muscle coordination must be emerged during a normal activity. Consequaently, for rehabilitation of movements such as hand writing and paiting in patients for example suffering from carpal channel syndrom or incomplete spinal cord injury, the correct muscle coordination patterns between the finger muscles and wrist muscles must be reestablished. So, in this paper a prediction methodology based on artificial neural networks (ANN) is proposed to approximate the Thumb fingure extensor and flexor muscles desired activation pattern during the hand writing and Painting. In the presented strategy, A nonlinear auto-regressive neural network (NARX), Recurrent Neural Network (RNN), Radial Basis Function (RBF), Multy Layer Perceptron (MLP) and an Adaptive-network-based fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) are trained to forecast the Extensor pollicis longus and Flexor pollicis brevis muscles activity of one thumb finger of hand using Extensor carpi radialis brevis and Flexor carpi ulnaris muscles activity of forearm. Quantitative evaluations show the promising performance of developed neural networks. Eight healthy volunteers participated in the experiments.
Neuro-Muscular Engineering
Sohrab Barimani; Ali Maleki; Ali Fallah
Volume 8, Issue 1 , March 2014, , Pages 101-111
Abstract
FES based method used for rehabilitation of patients with spinal cord injury (SCI). One of these methods is FES cycling. FES cycling exercise has to be useful among SCI patients because of creating a periodic activity in the muscles of the lower extremities and stability of seating position. The major ...
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FES based method used for rehabilitation of patients with spinal cord injury (SCI). One of these methods is FES cycling. FES cycling exercise has to be useful among SCI patients because of creating a periodic activity in the muscles of the lower extremities and stability of seating position. The major challenge for application of FES in rehabilitation is early fatigue occurrence in electrically stimulated muscles. Motor control system selects a low-cost path among the infinite possible route to the body's movements. High efficiency and the minimum rate of muscle fatigue are main characteristics of the motor control system. This type of control system is called muscle synergy. In this study, the quantification of muscle synergy between the core muscles in cycling has been done by non-negative matrix factorization (NMF) method and considering the kinesiology basis. Four synergies were determined as appropriate and optimal synergies to describe the cycling in different mechanical terms. VAF criteria with regard to the four synergies to describe cycling in speeds of 40, 50 and 60 rpm are 92±4, 92±3 and 91±4% respectively and torques, 5, 7 and 9 Nm are 91±3, 92±5 and 92±4% respectively. Correlation between Synergies extracted at different mechanical terms is 98.4 percent in average.
Rehabilitation Engineering
Ziba Gandomkar; Fariba Bahrami
Volume 7, Issue 1 , June 2013, , Pages 21-37
Abstract
Changes in gait pattern are early symptoms in many disorders such as balance and control problems resulted in fall among elderlies. This paper aims at proposing a new set of features extracted from Gait Frieze Pattern (GFP) in order to classify seniors to fallers and non-fallers. For indicating the effectiveness ...
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Changes in gait pattern are early symptoms in many disorders such as balance and control problems resulted in fall among elderlies. This paper aims at proposing a new set of features extracted from Gait Frieze Pattern (GFP) in order to classify seniors to fallers and non-fallers. For indicating the effectiveness of the presented method, the algorithm is used for recognition of different type of abnormal gaits. The introduced method consists of three main steps: extracting the subject from background, generating GFP and aligning them, and building the proposed image from GFP by thresholding followed by morphological operations. For evaluation of the proposed features, video sequences are collected from 8 elderly fallers, 8 non-fallers, and 8 youth while performing standard Timed Up and Go (TUG) test. In addition to TUG test youths are asked to walk fast and pretend to walk with 6 different types of abnormalities (limping, waddling, anterior- posterior sway, lateral sway, dragging, steppage gait). For finding correct classification rate, each time one data is considered as test and others as train and label of train data with the most similarity with test one on the score of normalized cross correlation is assigned to test data. Comparing to conventional TUG test, correct classification data is improved around 20% for faller detection. In addition, correct classification rate for detecting of different abnormalities in gait is approximately 90%.
Rehabilitation Engineering
Mohammad Salehi Amini; Siavash Kazemirad; Saman Mohammadi; Roya Narimani; Farzam Farahmand
Volume 7, Issue 2 , June 2013, , Pages 121-132
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to design, analyze and evaluate an effective low-cost driving mechanism for gait trainer. The crank-rocker mechanism was favored for reproducing the path of foot during gait cycle, considering the type of motion and design parameters such as adjustability for different anthropometries, ...
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The purpose of this study was to design, analyze and evaluate an effective low-cost driving mechanism for gait trainer. The crank-rocker mechanism was favored for reproducing the path of foot during gait cycle, considering the type of motion and design parameters such as adjustability for different anthropometries, providing sufficient space for interactions with physical therapist, and simplicity of execution. The dimensions of the mechanism were determined using optimization method while applying appropriate constraints so that the normal gait pattern, particularly of stance phase, was obtained. A 2-D model of the lower limb was developed to simulate the gait of a patient when using the mechanism. Results indicated that with appropriate positioning of the patient, the kinematic and kinetic patterns of the normal gait are reconstructed with no risk of injury. However, there is a high risk of injury of the knee articular surfaces and ligaments, if the patient is positioned only 3 cm higher than designed height.
Rehabilitation Engineering
Rahele Mohammadi; Ali Mahloojifar
Volume 7, Issue 1 , June 2013, , Pages 39-55
Abstract
A critical issue in designing a self-paced brain computer interface (BCI) system is onset detection of the mental task from the continuous electroencephalogram (EEG) signal to produce a brain switch. This work shows significant improvement in a movement based self-paced BCI by applying a new sparse learning ...
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A critical issue in designing a self-paced brain computer interface (BCI) system is onset detection of the mental task from the continuous electroencephalogram (EEG) signal to produce a brain switch. This work shows significant improvement in a movement based self-paced BCI by applying a new sparse learning classification algorithm, probabilistic classification vector machines (PCVMs) to classify EEG signal. Constant-Q filters instead of constant bandwidth filters for frequency decomposition are also shown to enhance the discrimination of movement related patterns from EEG patterns associated with idle state. Analysis of the data recorded from seven subjects executing foot movement using the constant-Q filters and PCVMs shows a statistically significant 16% (p<0.03) average improvement in true positive rate (TPR) and a 2% (p<0.03) reduction in false positive rate (FPR) compared with applying constant bandwidth filters and SVM classifier.
Rehabilitation Engineering
Diako Mardanbeigi; Mohammad Reza Mallakzadeh
Volume 4, Issue 4 , June 2010, , Pages 267-278
Abstract
This paper investigates prototyping an online, low-cost, video based and applicable eye tracker, which is called "Dias Eye Tracker". Disabled people can use the proposed system to communicate with computer. What have made the system different from the other low-cost eye trackers, are the accuracy of ...
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This paper investigates prototyping an online, low-cost, video based and applicable eye tracker, which is called "Dias Eye Tracker". Disabled people can use the proposed system to communicate with computer. What have made the system different from the other low-cost eye trackers, are the accuracy of gaze estimation, the different application parts of the software and the lightweight wireless hardware, which can be mounted on the user’s head. This paper introduces the software/hardware and the methods of the system. In addition, two methods of pupil tracking have been compared together, and an uncertainty analysis on the mapping function of the system has been done. The performance of the designed eye tracker has been evaluated by analyzing the answers to the three questionnaires, which were filled by disabled people after performing three specific tasks. The results show that the system performs well for interaction with computer.
Rehabilitation Engineering
Vahab Nekoukar; Abbas Erfanian Omidvar
Volume 4, Issue 4 , June 2010, , Pages 327-336
Abstract
One major limitation of walker-supported walking using functional electrical stimulation (FES) in paraplegic subjects is the high energy expenditure and the high upper body effort. Paraplegics should exert high amount of hand force to stabilize the body posture and to compensate lack of the sufficient ...
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One major limitation of walker-supported walking using functional electrical stimulation (FES) in paraplegic subjects is the high energy expenditure and the high upper body effort. Paraplegics should exert high amount of hand force to stabilize the body posture and to compensate lack of the sufficient torques at the lower extremity joints. In this paper, we introduce a 2-D musculoskeletal model of walker-assisted FES-supported walking of paraplegics. Using the developed model and an optimal controller, the stimulation patterns are determined such that the tracking errors of lower joint reference trajectories are minimized and the muscle activations and the handle reaction force (HRF) are reduced. Outputs of the optimal controller are stimulation patterns of the lower body muscles and torque acting on the upper body joints. The results show that the HRF and ground reaction force (GRF) generated by simulation are in agreement with the measured HRF and GRF. Moreover, the results indicate that the simulation-generated stimulation patterns of lower body muscles are in consist with the stimulation patterns reported in the literatures.
Rehabilitation Engineering
Robabe Vatanparast; Hossein Karimi; Fariba Bahrami; Roya Narimani
Volume 3, Issue 3 , June 2009, , Pages 171-178
Abstract
CNS applies Anticipatory Postural Adjustments (APA) strategy to reject or minimize perturbation during different voluntary movements. The postural control mechanisms associated with voluntary arm movement (rapid arm rising) in below knee amputees (BKA) was investigated and the results were compared with ...
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CNS applies Anticipatory Postural Adjustments (APA) strategy to reject or minimize perturbation during different voluntary movements. The postural control mechanisms associated with voluntary arm movement (rapid arm rising) in below knee amputees (BKA) was investigated and the results were compared with the normal subjects. Biomechanical variables including ground reaction forces and displacements of the center of pressure were used to investigate the APA in BKA. Six below knee amputees and six control subjects stood on a force plate under three conditions: 1. with both feet on the platform, 2. with right foot (prosthetic foot) and 3. with left foot on the plate. For each condition, the task was repeated 10 times. At the same time, a camera recorded the task performance. The recorded data were used to determine the start moment of the movement. The instant at which, for the first time before starting the movement, any one of the recorded biomechanical variables deviated from its initial value was considered as the beginning of the APA. To increase the validity of the test, efforts were made to match the subjects with regards to their age, gender, cause of amputation and prosthesis types. Our results indicated that the center of pressure in the BKA participants showed greater displacements in medial-lateral and anterior-posterior directions. It was also observed that the vertical components of the ground reaction forces, when the right foot was on the plate, were increased. There were no significant differences in other biomechanical variables between the two groups. We may conclude that the voluntary arm movement perturbs the posture in the BKA participants more than in the control group. The BKA participants shifted their weight to the intact limb by the anticipation of the disturbance to avoid balance loosing. Therefore, in our study the intact limb in below knee amputee subjects played an important role in the balance control. Based on our results, we suggest considering the role of the intact limb in the rehabilitation programs and strengthening the muscles of both limbs as a major part of theses programs.
Rehabilitation Engineering
Hamed Ghomashchi; Ali Esteki; Ali Motie Nasrabadi
Volume 2, Issue 2 , June 2008, , Pages 95-107
Abstract
In this study, the underlying dynamics of postural control system during quiet standing were investigated. Single-subject (SS) analysis was used as the statistical technique to compare the results. Center of pressure (COP) trajectories of 21 trials of a standing healthy subject and 24 trials of a cerebrovascular ...
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In this study, the underlying dynamics of postural control system during quiet standing were investigated. Single-subject (SS) analysis was used as the statistical technique to compare the results. Center of pressure (COP) trajectories of 21 trials of a standing healthy subject and 24 trials of a cerebrovascular attacked (CVA) patient were considered in our analysis. Complexity, dimensionality and stability of postural balance control system were evaluated using the first local minimum of auto mutual information (AMI) function, correlation dimension (Dc) and largest lyapunov exponent (LLE), respectively. The results indicated higher time delays (higher determinism), lower correlation dimension (lower active dynamical degrees of freedom) and lower LLE (increase of local stability) in the postural steadiness time series of the CVA patient in compare with the normal subject. The results showed that these measures not only can be used as pathologic measures to distinguish healthy subjects from CVA patient but also provide us new openings to disclose the postural control mechanism during a quiet standing.
Rehabilitation Engineering
Ali Maleki; Ali Fallah
Volume 2, Issue 2 , June 2008, , Pages 131-140
Abstract
Patients with spinal cord injury in C5/C6 levels are capable of controlling the voluntary movements of the shoulder joints, but some muscles involved in the movement of the elbow joint are paralyzed in these patients. By using FES as well as an appropriate stimulation of the paralyzed muscles, the patients ...
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Patients with spinal cord injury in C5/C6 levels are capable of controlling the voluntary movements of the shoulder joints, but some muscles involved in the movement of the elbow joint are paralyzed in these patients. By using FES as well as an appropriate stimulation of the paralyzed muscles, the patients can be assisted with their essential daily living activities. One of the major problems of using FES for reanimation of the paralyzed arm is to provide voluntary commands for FES control. Kinematic synergy and muscle synergy are two main options in this regard. In this paper, these two command sources were evaluated and compared. Furthermore, a mixed method was proposed, which improves performance. Thus, the EMG and kinematical data during a set of activities of daily living (AOL) were recorded and processed. Precise investigations were carried out in order to determine the appropriate values for high-level neural network controller parameters. Next, six different neural network controller structures were trained by the EMG and/or kinematical data. Using this method, cross correlation between the estimation and measurement for all records was obtained as 94.76% for kinematic synergy and 98.08%, for muscle synergy. In the mixed method, these values were improved to 94.82% and 98.84% respectively. Furthermore, mixed method paved the way to improve the performance of low-level controller with estimating the desired kinematics for the distal joint and desired activity for the paralyzed muscle.
Rehabilitation Engineering
Nima Jamshidi; Mostafa Rostami; Siamak Najarian; Mohammad Bagher Menhaj; Mohammad Saadatnia; Firouz Salami
Volume 2, Issue 1 , June 2008, , Pages 57-64
Abstract
In this research the kinematics parameters derived from ground reaction forces were evaluated to limit the differential diagnoses and measure the degree of disabilities during the walking among neuropathic subjects. 25 neuropathic subjects affected by drop foot and 20 normal subjects were enrolled in ...
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In this research the kinematics parameters derived from ground reaction forces were evaluated to limit the differential diagnoses and measure the degree of disabilities during the walking among neuropathic subjects. 25 neuropathic subjects affected by drop foot and 20 normal subjects were enrolled in the study. There were no differences in the age, weight and height between the patients and normal subjects (p > 0.05). Each subject was tested in average 10±2 times for calculating the kinetic parameters derived from ground reaction forces. Then time parameters and vertical components of force including three extremums of vertical forces, which state various phases in gait, anterior-posterior component of ground reaction force, maximum propulsion force, maximum breaking force during loading stage, maximum propulsion force in the end phase of terminal stance, impact derived from the contact of the patient' foot with floor, loading rate and unloading of vertical forces during the contact' phase of the patient's foot with floor and center of pressure displacement in sole of foot and friction' coefficient between foot and floor were calculated. The results revealed that correlation between the first and second peaks of the anterior-posterior component of ground reaction forces, center of pressure displacement pattern in the sole of foot and time parameters of the vertical forces can be good indexes for differential diagnoses and measuring the degree of disabilities. This research can extend the clinical applications of ground reaction force plate, introduce suitable criteria to limit differential diagnoses and measure the degree of disabilities among the neuropathies. There is a need to replicate this research with more patients and normal subjects to confirm our findings.
Neuro-Muscular Engineering
Hamid Reza Kobravi; Abbas Erfanian Omidvar
Volume 2, Issue 4 , June 2008, , Pages 335-349
Abstract
In this paper an adaptive robust fuzzy controller based on sliding mode control (SMC) approach is proposed to control the knee joint position using quadriceps electrical stimulation and it has been tested on three subjects. The proposed method is based on SMC. The main advantage of SMC derives from the ...
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In this paper an adaptive robust fuzzy controller based on sliding mode control (SMC) approach is proposed to control the knee joint position using quadriceps electrical stimulation and it has been tested on three subjects. The proposed method is based on SMC. The main advantage of SMC derives from the property of robustness to system uncertainties and external disturbances. However, a large value has to be applied to the control gain when the boundary of uncertainties is unknown. Unfortunately, this large control gain may cause chattering on the sliding surface and therefore deteriorate the system performance. In this paper a robust control strategy proposed which is based on the combination of sliding mode, fuzzy logic systems, and an adaptive compensator to reduce the system uncertainties while alleviating the effects of chattering. The fuzzy logic system is used to identify the muscle-joint dynamics. The parameters of this fuzzy system were estimated using another fuzzy system. The controller is evaluated through the simulation studies on a virtual patient and experimental studies on intact subjects. The results show that the adaptive robust controller provides an accurate tracking of desired knee-joint angle for different subjects and different days and can generate control signals to compensate the muscle fatigue and reject the external disturbance.
