DESIGNING OF A LOW COST BIOSIGNAL ACQUISITION

FOR CONTROLLING REHABILITATION SYSTEM

JOBIN JOSE
211BM1209
NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, ROURKELA
Abstract
A large section of our society suffers from one or other kind of disabilities due to accidents,
neurological disorders etc. These disabilities force these patients to depend on their family
members or care-givers for day-to-day activities including mobility, communication with the
environment, controlling the house hold equipment etc. recent advancement in the biomedical
field able to produce neural linkage with Computers with various biomedical signals which can
be acquired from a specialized tissue, organ, or cell system like the nervous system. Examples
include Electro-Encephalogram (EEG), Electrooculogram (EOG), and Electromyogram (EMG).
Such approaches are extremely valuable to physically disabled persons. With the help of these
biosignals they can interact with a computer and other accessories. This review deals with
different methods that can be used to improve the performance of rehabilitation aids for motor
impaired persons.

Keywords: EOG, EEG, EMG, rehabilitation aid ,BCI, HCI







1. Introduction and Objective
According to national institute of health there are around 2.7 lakh persons in the country who are
affected by paraplegia or quadriplegia. A common thought haunted by most of these people is
that they are a burden to their families and society because for every day to day action for them
to perform they need to depend on family even for transport from one place to other. Most of the
time the life led by these peoples are miserable. Different techniques by rehabilitation
engineering help to improve the life of these people. An ideal rehabilitation aid is such that it
collect information from the surrounding, analyze those information, convey those information
to user and finally receive commands from user. With the advance in current research in image
and signal processing we can provide artificial intelligence to system that can interpret the
information automatically. The use of these rehabitation aids aid the disabled person to do their
da -to-day activities without depending on others.
Out of all the rehabilitation techniques HCI (Human Computer Interphase) becomes the newest
and the most effective technique. Lot of researches are going in the field of HCI. Main aim of
HCI systems is converting signals generated by the humans or gestures made by the humans are
converted to some keystrokes or mouse movements. In HCI both biosignals and non biosignals
are used for control. Biosignals used are EMGs, EEGs and EOGs.
1.2 Introduction to EOG signal approach
Metabolic activities in the cornea region are higher than the retinal region. This leads to the
development of a potential difference between these two parts. Usually cornea maintains a
voltage of +0.40 to +1.0 millivolts higher than the retina. [1][4]. EOG signal is based on
electrical potential difference between the cornea and retina when eye movement is realized. The
amplitude of this signal ranges between [50, 3500] V and its frequency components go from 0
to 100Hz. An eye movement is related to a rise/fall of EOG signal amplitude.[2] Two voltage
levels, low and high, can be defined in order to distinguish between a deliberate movement
and a non-deliberate one. Both, the low level and the high level, can be identified by a
threshold value which is defined by equations.
The merits of EOG systems are as follows:
1. Acquisition of EOG signal is easy..
2. EOG signals can cover wide range of view
3. EOG signals are very fast. Thus real-time implementation is possible. [3]

This signal is a bio potential measurable around the eye - either between the top and bottom of
the eye (the vertical EOG), or between the two sides of the eye (the horizontal
EOG). The EOG amplitude varies as the eyeball rotates within the head, and thus can be used to
determine horizontal and vertical eye movements.[5]

In Figure 2-1, positive or negative pulses will be generated when the eyes rolling upward or
downward. The amplitude of pulse will be increased with the increment of rolling angle, and the
width of the positive (negative) pulse is proportional to the duration of the eyeball rolling
process

Fig 2-1 Eye movement and the corresponding waveform


Fig 2.2 Electrode placement for EOG data collection [2]
(h: horizontal, v: vertical, r: reference)



In our HCI system, three to five electrodes are employed to attain the EOG signals. Figure 2-2
shows the electrode placement. EOG can be measured either from 3 electrodes or from 5
electrode. In 3 electrode technique only 1&2 with reference electrode can also be used. 1 & 4
are for detecting vertical movement and 2 & 3 for detecting horizontal movement. The electrode
5 is for reference. Blink detection is by separate algorithm based on EOG signals[6]
Outputs of electrodes are amplified and filtered this is our front end electronics after that using
A/D convertor signal is digitized and this completes our Acquisition of Signal part. Now we
combine all acquire signals from all electrodes and send them via RF interface for future Pre and
post processing of signals and finally Eye movements and Eye blink events are extracted and
sent as commands to drive cursor on screen which is part of application part, buttons one the
cursors are clicked using eye moments and eye blink and designated action is completed but
application circuit.












3. Materials and Work plan
3.1 Materials
The ICs AD620 and OP07 were procured from Analog devices, Norwood, USA and Fairchild,
South Portland, USA, respectively. Disposable pre-gelled electrodes for EMG signal acquisition
was obtained from BPL, Bangalore, INDIA. Ni-MH rechargeable batteries (9 V) were obtained
from UNIROS, Bristol, UK. Data acquisition device (USB-6008) was procured from Advantech
corporation, Taiwan. Arduino Leonardo microcontroller board was procured from Arduino
corporation Italy. The capacitors, resistors motors and other parts were procured from local
market.

3.2 Work Plan


















Fig 3.1 Basic Block Diagram of Eye based architecture







Fig 3.2 and 3.3 Vertical and Horizontal EOG acquisition

In our HCI system, three to five electrodes are employed to attain the EOG signals. Figure 3.2
AND 3.3 shows the electrode placement. EOG can be measured either from 3 electrodes or from
5 electrode. In 3 electrode technique only horizontal electrodes with reference electrode can also
be used. In 5 electrode both vertical movement and horizontal movements are detected. The
electrode 5 is for reference. Blink detection is by separate algorithm based on EOG signals

The noise present in the signal can be removed by using filters. The baseline wandering also
can be removed by filters.
Separate algorithms are used for identifying a blink and eye movement. They are identified by
the width of waveform and height of waves. For eye movements width of the pulse will be more
but amplitude is low. For blink waveform amplitude of the pulse will be more but duration of of
pulse is low.by using separate algoriths this can be identified.

This step is proceed by bio signal to control signal generation. Separate eye movements and
duration between individual eye movement can be formulated to produce individual control
signals.
By using these control signals different rehabilitation aids can be accessed and controlled.






4. Result and Discussion
4.1 EOG signal acquisition system
In general, the EOG signal amplitude and bandwidth varies in the range of 50, 3500 V [3].
USB-4704 is 12-bit analog-to-digital converter. Hence, care has to be taken to design a
biopotential which will be able to amplify the signal in such a way that the digitization of the
EOG signals result in minimum quantization error. To ascertain this, the gain of the bio potential
amplifier should be adjusted so that 0.01 mV EOG signal is amplified above 1.4 mV. Also, the
Characteristic of AD620 suggests that as the gain of bio potential amplifier is increased there is a
subsequent increase in the common-mode rejection ratio (CMRR). Taking the above facts into
consideration, the biopotential amplifier was designed with a gain of 1000.[6][9]
AD620 instrumentation amplifier was chosen as the front end amplifier due to its high CMRR
at high gain. Differential amplifier in contained in the instrumentation amplifier allows
subtraction of the common or unwanted signal from the actual signal but the perfect subtraction
is never done. The high the common mode rejection ratio indicates the better subtraction and the
CMRR of the AD620 at a gain of 1000 is about 130 dB, is more than sufficient for this project .A
single external resistor sets the gain of AD620 from 1 to 10000, the resistor is connected between
the 1st and 8th legs of the opamp. The gain can be calculated by the following equation.

Where Rg is the the resistor is connected between the 1st and 8th legs of the opamp.
where Rg = 2R.
when R = 22 the Rg = 44 and Gain will be approximately 1100
Fig 4.1 Pre amplifier with Driven Right Leg design.
To increase the CMRR the body reference ciruit is designed using Driven Right Leg design.[5]

To prevent the noise that have been amplified by the preamplifier circuit, a band pass filter
was applied to the output of preamplfier. Filter also helps to sink any DC current that might
cause bias for the signal.After the initial signal is amplified by the front end amplifier, the signal
is passed through a Sallen-Key Butterworth high pass filter with a .05Hz cut-of frequency
rejecting all the motion artifacts but at the same time letting pass the lower end of the frequency
band of interest.The high-pass filter is followed by a a Sallen-Key 2 pole Butterworth low-pass
filter with a 35Hz cut-of frequency in order to band pass the signal.[8] The gain of the band-pass
filter is 1 as the gain of the high-pass filter and the gain of the low-pass filter are both 1.

Fig 4.2 Band Pass Filter Consisting of a High Pass and a Low Pass Filter







Fig 4.3 Original EOG waveform corresponding to eye movements obtained from DAQ


Fig 4.4 Original EOG signal obtained from Blinking.






















5. Work Remaining
An efficient and low cost Data Acquisition system for detecting EOG is devoped. Remaining
work includes the devolepment of rehabilitation techniques and generation of control signals
from generated EOG. Which will be completed during next semester.









6. Expected Result and Conclusion
A system used to detect eye movement based on the EOG signal is proposed. So the system
objective is to detect when a movement of eyes is realized and the route described. . In this
project, events generated for the system when an eye movement is done can be used to handle
computer applications causing as less fatigue as possible to the user. This allows handicapped
people are able to access the computer in an easy and comfortable form. So, in the future, we
will use the EOG signal as communication interface to handle an application based on
augmentative and alternative communication. Also, we will detect the stress and fatigue of user
in order to use these results in ambient living application.



6. References



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