Muscle stimulator and control methods therefor
AssigneeContour Technology, Inc.
InventorsAnthony Schauer, Kenneth E. Broen, Peter Wollenzien
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Abstract
Apparatus and methods for muscle stimulation and control of muscle stimulators are disclosed. In at least one embodiment, an electrical muscle stimulator includes a belt having a plurality of stimulator pads, a pulse width modulator controlled by a feedback loop, the PWM providing output to control voltages of the stimulator pads, and a control unit to control the PWM and feedback loop. In various embodiments, the control unit monitors PWM output values during a rest phase of a cycle of the muscle stimulator, provides a contraction phase, and following a sag after the contraction phase, uses PWM values from the rest phase to set a voltage for a subsequent rest phase of a next cycle.
Claims14
A method of feed forward pulse control for a muscle stimulator having a cycle comprising a rest phase, a contraction phase, and a sag after the contraction phase, the method comprising:
- delivering the cycle with a pulse width modulator;
- monitoring pulse width modulator (PWM) output values during the rest phase;
- and
- following the sag, using the PWM values from the rest phase to set a voltage for a subsequent rest phase of a next cycle.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.