System and method for acquiring and processing myoelectric signals in order to control a prosthetic arm

Abstract

The invention relates to a system for acquiring and processing myoelectric signals in order to control a prosthetic arm, comprising: a pair of electrodes positioned in a muscle in the residual limb of an arm that has been amputated in order to detect myoelectric signals; an electrode positioned at a distance from said pair of electrodes, which acts as an earth system; a myoelectric signal conditioning means; and a prosthesis controlling and processing means which receives conditioned signals from the conditioning means. According to the invention, the prosthesis controlling and processing means includes: a comparison means for comparing a muscle contraction time and a muscle contraction voltage with a threshold time and a threshold voltage, respectively; and an activation means for activating at least one motor which produces a pre-determined movement of the prosthesis in response to an activation signal transmitted from the aforementioned comparison means. The electrodes provide the myoelectric signal for activating different movements of the prosthesis, without the electrodes having to be changed to another muscle.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.