Development of a pressure sensor system for unobtrusive monitoring of abdominal muscle activities

Abstract

Surface electromyogram (sEMG) is often used by to objectively measure muscular activity during rehabilitation exercises. sEMG is accurate, but it is unsuitable for uses outside the clinic, and patients can benefit from an unobtrusive device which can be readily used to ubiquitously measure abdominal muscle activation. In this study, we present a pressure sensor system which can be latched onto a belt to measure abdominal muscle activation. sEMG and pressure sensor output were measured in 15 healthy young males during isometric trunk flexion exercise (public trials registration number, KCT0002351), and the results were highly correlated (median R > 0.939). As initial contact force can change the pressure sensor sensitivity, the experiment was performed at two different levels of belt tightness, but the correlations did not significantly improve after tightening the belt, suggesting that the system can be used to ubiquitously and unobtrusively monitor abdominal muscle activity with minimal discomfort.

Keywords:

• Abdominal muscles
• bioinstrumentation
• low back/lumbar spine
• therapeutic exercise
• abdominal bracing

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest with regard to the manuscript titled, “Development of a Pressure Sensor System for Unobtrusive Monitoring of Abdominal Muscle Activities”.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Seoul R&D Program under Grant [PS150019] and Seoul National University Hospital under Grant 0420100180.