Wearable electromyography-based human-computer interface

• US 9,037,530 B2
• Filed: 03/29/2012
• Issued: 05/19/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/26/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Tan, Desney, Saponas, T. Scott, Morris, Dan, Turner, Jim
• Primary Examiner(s): Chaki, Kakali
• Assistant Examiner(s): COUGHLAN, PETER D
• Application Number:
  US13/433,845
• Publication Number:
  US 20120188158A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,146 Days
• US Class Current: 706/62
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/389 Electromyography [EMG]
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6824 Arm or wrist
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6828 Leg
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/015 Input arrangements based on nervous system activity detection, e.g. brain waves [EEG] detection, electromyograms [EMG] detection, electrodermal response detection
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/017 Gesture based interaction, e.g. based on a set of recognized hand gestures interaction based on gestures traced on a digitiser G06F3/04883
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 20/00 Machine learning
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/00 Computing arrangements using knowledge-based models

Abstract

A “Wearable Electromyography-Based Controller” includes a plurality of Electromyography (EMG) sensors and provides a wired or wireless human-computer interface (HCI) for interacting with computing systems and attached devices via electrical signals generated by specific movement of the user'"'"'s muscles. Following initial automated self-calibration and positional localization processes, measurement and interpretation of muscle generated electrical signals is accomplished by sampling signals from the EMG sensors of the Wearable Electromyography-Based Controller. In operation, the Wearable Electromyography-Based Controller is donned by the user and placed into a coarsely approximate position on the surface of the user'"'"'s skin. Automated cues or instructions are then provided to the user for fine-tuning placement of the Wearable Electromyography-Based Controller. Examples of Wearable Electromyography-Based Controllers include articles of manufacture, such as an armband, wristwatch, or article of clothing having a plurality of integrated EMG-based sensor nodes and associated electronics.

Claims

1. A human-computer interface, comprising:

an arbitrarily positionable wearable device having a plurality of sensor nodes, wherein each sensor node further includes one or more Electromyography (EMG) sensors;

a module for automatically evaluating one or more signals generated by one or more of the sensor nodes and received by one or more of the other sensor nodes to determine relative positions of each sensor node;

a module for automatically measuring muscle generated electrical signals using one or more of the EMG sensors;

a module for automatically determining which muscle generated electrical signals correspond to one or more specific user gestures; and

a module for causing one or more computing devices to automatically execute one or more specific commands corresponding to one or more of the specific user gestures.

2. The human-computer interface of claim 1 further comprising a calibration phase that automatically identifies one or more specific user muscles that generate the electrical signals measured by one or more specific EMG sensors, and wherein the user performs one or more specific gestures as part of a training phase for the calibration.

3. The human-computer interface of claim 1 wherein a subset of the EMG sensors is identified by an automated multiplexing process which determines which EMG sensors are sufficient to measure the muscle generated electrical signals that are associated with one or more of the specific user gestures.

4. The human-computer interface of claim 3 further comprising a module for automatically disabling all EMG sensors not included in the subset of EMG sensors.

5. The human-computer interface of claim 1 further comprising a module for automatically determining an approximate position of the wearable device on the surface of the skin of the user'"'"'s body.

6. The human-computer interface of claim 1 wherein the relative positions of the sensor nodes to each other are used to automatically disable one or more EMG sensors that are identified as providing information that is not needed to determine which muscle generated electrical signals correspond to one or more specific user gestures.

7. The human-computer interface of claim 1 wherein the wearable device communicates wirelessly with one or more of the computing devices.

8. The human-computer interface of claim 1 further comprising a module that provides automatic feedback to the user for directing the user to refine placement of a position of the wearable device on the surface of the user'"'"'s skin.

9. The human-computer interface of claim 1 further comprising a module for providing automatic feedback to the user to indicate whether one or more of the specific commands were successfully executed in response to one or more specific user gestures.

10. The human-computer interface of claim 1 further comprising a module for deactivating the wearable device following receipt of an explicit indication provided by the user.

11. A process for sending commands to one or more computing devices, comprising:

arbitrarily positioning a wearable device in contact with an outer surface of a user'"'"'s skin, said wearable device having a plurality of Electromyography (EMG) sensors for measuring muscle generated electrical activity via a skin of the user;

providing automatic feedback to the user for directing the user to refine placement of the wearable device on a surface of the user'"'"'s skin to position one or more of the sensors nodes to capture particular muscle generated electrical signals;

automatically evaluating muscle-generated electrical signals of the user measured via one or more of the EMG sensors to automatically identify one or more specific gestures of the user from a predefined set of gestures; and

automatically directing one or more computing devices to execute one or more specific commands corresponding to one or more of the identified gestures.

12. The process of claim 11 further comprising performing an initial calibration process which evaluates muscle generated electrical signals associated with a subset of gestures to determine expected muscle generated electrical signals for the complete set of gestures.

13. The process of claim 11 wherein commands associated with one or more of the gestures of the set of gestures is user definable.

14. The process of claim 11 wherein the automatic feedback to the user for directing the user to refine placement of the position of the wearable device on a surface of the user'"'"'s skin is a visual feedback.

15. A system for providing a human-computer interface (HCI), comprising:

an arbitrarily positionable wearable device having a plurality of sensor nodes, wherein each sensor node further includes one or more Electromyography (EMG) sensors;

a device which provides automatic feedback to the user for directing the user to refine placement of a position of the wearable device on a surface of the user'"'"'s skin to ensure adequate signal strength of the muscle generated electrical signals measured using one or more of the EMG sensors;

a device for automatically measuring muscle generated electrical signals using one or more of the EMG sensors;

a device for automatically determining which muscle generated electrical signals correspond to one or more specific user gestures; and

a device for causing one or more computing devices to automatically execute one or more specific commands corresponding to one or more of the specific user gestures.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein the automatic feedback to the user for directing the user to refine placement of the position of the wearable device is provided via a visual indication.

17. The system of claim 15 wherein the automatic feedback to the user for directing the user to refine placement of the position of the wearable device is provided via an auditory indication.

18. The system of claim 15 wherein the automatic feedback to the user for directing the user to refine placement of the position of the wearable device is provided via a haptic indication applied to the user'"'"'s skin by the wearable device.

19. The system of claim 15 wherein one or more of the specific commands corresponding to one or more of the specific user gestures are user definable.

20. The system of claim 15 wherein one or more of the specific user gestures are user definable.