Development of new muscle contraction sensor to replace sEMG for using in muscles analysis fields

Nowadays, the technologies for detecting, processing and interpreting bioelectrical signals have improved tremendously. In particular, surface electromyography (sEMG) has gained momentum in a wide range of applications in various fields. However, sEMG sensing has several shortcomings, the most important being: measurements are heavily sensible to individual differences, sensors are difficult to position and very expensive. In this paper, the authors will present an innovative muscle contraction sensing device (MC sensor), aiming to replace sEMG sensing in the field of muscle movement analysis. Compared with sEMG, this sensor is easier to position, setup and use, less dependent from individual differences, and less expensive. Preliminary experiments, described in this paper, confirm that MC sensing is suitable for muscle contraction analysis, and compare the results of sEMG and MC sensor for the measurement of forearm muscle contraction.