Week 12

This week was the week for the FYP1 proposal presentation. The presentation date was 21/12/2016 and was held at Gemilang Hall. My assessors for this presentation was Sir Rosli and Sir Shahrizaili. Sir Rosli is an expert on motors and circuits and Sir Shahrizaili is and expert on medical instrumentation.

The input that i received from this presentation was that I need to empower my knowledge further in my project. I also need to identify a sampling method for my signals in order to create a proper result. Both assessors were helpful and I hope that I had made them truly understand this project.

Week 11

For this week i would like to talk about the bluetooth module that will be used in the project.

This Bluetooth module can easily achieve serial wireless data transmission. Its operating frequency is among the most popular 2.4GHz ISM frequency band (i.e. Industrial, scientific and medical). It adopts Bluetooth 2.0+EDR standard. In Bluetooth 2.0, signal transmit time of different devices stands at a 0.5 seconds interval so that the workload of bluetooth chip can be reduced substantially and more sleeping time can be saved for bluetooth. This module is set with serial interface, which is easy to use and simplifies the overall design/development cycle.

The block diagram for my project are:

 Its main component are all this MyoWare sensor, aduirno Microc and the bluetooh

Week 10

For this week, i finished creating a Gantt chart for this semester and the next. These are the charts:

These are the schedule. This schedule is meant for planning so that the student can have a plan chronologically on how to proceed with the project and finish within the set deadline. I will also finish this in time.
also included is the flow chart of the processes.

For the flowchart, the process starts with turning it on and connecting the sensor electrode pad on to the targeted muscle, afterwards, the subject performs maximum voluntary contraction if able to. the value receive afterwards are sampled and stored and compared from the normal values. if it is near normal, no action is recommended but when the result is different the device will suggest going to see a doctor for the nerve.

Week 9

I started the draft for the presentation slide and proposal writing. The understanding of the project is also enhanced with the development of the flowchart, and the signal flow. Will further the project by learning ways to send the signal from the arduino board to a smartphone application

Week 8

For this project, it seems that there is a lot of injury related to the condition of neuropathy of the patient. an example of these injuries include :

• Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)
• Carpal tunnel syndrome
• Cervical spondylosis
• Guillain-Barre syndrome
• Lambert-Eaton syndrome
• Muscular dystrophy
• Myasthenia gravis
• Peripheral neuropathy
• Polymyositis
• Radial nerve dysfunction
• Sciatica nerve dysfunction

The condition of neural damage can also occur in diabetic patient. As such, this subject is wider and cover more illness than just simple injury. 

Week 7

MyoWare sensor

MyoWare is a small surface EMG sensor developed by Advancer Technologies as a Kickstarter project a few years ago. It automatically analyzes the incoming raw voltage signal and outputs a smooth positive waveform of integer values, as depicted by the graph below (more details are found in the MyoWare datasheet). The new version of MyoWare also outputs the raw voltage data for customized filtering and processing.

Myoware processes raw EMG value into smooth processed integer

Week 6

Arduino

Arduino is an open-source project that has designed a family of simple computers that provide an interface between sensors and control of physical devices. Because the schematics to design the products are open-source, other companies may freely reproduce the models as well. These unofficial devices are often cheaper and generally reliable. The Arduino “Uno” is a good starter model with a fair amount of inputs and outputs.
Arduino devices are programmed using a simplified version of the C language. A user writes code on a computer and transfers this code to the Arduino by USB. Then, the Arduino can be powered by USB or a battery without the need for a computer. The Arduino website has useful Getting Started Guide and Tutorials.

I choose to use arduino for this project due to the simplicity and the form factor that is important for the function of this project.

Week 5

Development on the project

in further research, there are multiple researches that shown nerve damage associating with injury. One of the research here shows that 45% out of 101 patients with primary shoulder dislocations and humeral neck fractures show signs of nerve lesions and is shown on their EMG. An article found online describing the EMG test in simple terms here explains that the test involves 2 parameters of electrical current conduction in a nerve. The test involve testing the delay and the amplitude of the nerve group. A delay may indicate a damaged or pinched nerve and loss in amplitude may indicate that certain fibres in a nerve bundle is not conducting at all. 

A simple project found in youtube demonstrates a simple emg circuit to show the delay and amplitude of a nerve. This project amplifies the possibility of developing a simple device to diagnose an injury. 

Week 4

• found this video while researching for past projects
• it is a simple project that can be done using emg electrodes, sensors and arduino board
• the list of materials used are listed down below

Circuit Chips

3x TL072 IC Chip  - Free Samples

1x INA106 IC Chip  - Free Samples

Cables and Electrodes

1x EMG Cables   (set of 3)... Note: you could optionally connect the alligator clips directly to the electrodes.

3x EMG Electrodes  

Power

2x 9V Battery

2x 9V battery clips  

Capacitors

• 2x 1.0 uF Tant 

• 1x 0.01 uF Ceramic Disc  

• 1x 1.0 uF Ceramic Disc   

Resistors

• 3x 150 kOhm 1%  

• 2x 1 MOhm 1% 

• 2x 80.6 kOhm 1%  

• 6x 10 kOhm 1%

• 1x 100 kOhm Trimmer 

• 1x 1 kOhm 1%

Misc

• 2x 1N4148 Diode  

• Jumper wires

• 3x Alligator clip cables

Optional

• 1x Oscilloscope

• 1x Multimeter

Week 3

For this week, according to the researches online, it seems that EMG is related to the health of the target nerve. An injury to the muscle may lead to the injury of the nerve itself, thus subjecting it to the EMG test. for the video that i posted, i found out that making a simple EMG machine in a small budget is possible. What i would like to improve on the concept is to make a better machine that can better pickup the signals that the nerves conduct between them. It seems that physicians commonly use invasive method with the needle rather than the pads used in the video. this is for eliminating the noise originating from the skin due to the high impedance of the human skin. i would like to further develop this project more.

Week 2

• Started research on this project
• Preliminary research includes finding suitable article and pages of similar interest in the project
• Created this blogspot account in order to publish my progress and share my thoughts out loud

Week 1

For the start of the project, it is the briefing for the FYP 1. The contents for the briefing are:

1. Proposal
2. Proposal Presentation
3. Logbook/Blog
4. Supervisor choice

Those were the requirements for the FYP1 subject.