Surface Electromyography (EMG) Threshold

Biomedical Engineering

How It Works

Surface electromyography (sEMG) measures the electrical interference pattern created by the recruitment of skeletal muscle motor unit action potentials (MUAPs). In advanced myoelectric prosthetics, raw high-frequency microvolt signals are rectified and smoothed with a moving root-mean-square (RMS) window. When the voluntary muscle contraction envelope crosses a preset activation threshold, control logic triggers prosthetic motion.

Governing Equation
V_RMS(t) = √((1 / T) · ∫_{t-T}^t V(τ)² dτ) ≥ V_threshold