Abstract
When human movement is assisted or controlled with a muscle actuator, such as electrical muscle stimulation, a critical issue is the integration of such induced movement with the person’s motion intention and how this movement then affects their motor control. Towards achieving optimal integration and reducing feelings of artificiality and enforcement, we explored perceptual simultaneity through electrical muscle stimulation, which involved changing the interval between intentional and induced movements. We report on two experiments in which we evaluated the ranges between detection and stimulus for perceptual simultaneity achievable with an electromyography-triggered electrical muscle stimulation system. We found that the peak range was approximately 80-160 ms, with the timing of perceptual simultaneity shifting according to different adaptation states. Our results indicate that perceptual simultaneity is controllable using this adaptation strategy.
Highlights
Human beings have continuously developed tools to enhance quality of life
We found that the adaptation effect in Experiment 2 is no exception; the relative timing of the adaptation stimulus (A50 and A150) was not precise due to the hardware used
We evaluated an EMG-triggered motion induction system that detects the onset of body movements using an EMG device and stimulates the biceps to induce additional movements through electrical muscle stimulation (EMS)
Summary
Recent technological advances have allowed for the development of various systems that can interactively assist our physical capabilities (e.g., power assist suits [1, 2], human-machine interactive tools [3, 4]). When human movement is assisted with a muscle actuator or an exoskeleton suit (Fig 1a), a critical issue arises: how to integrate the induced movement with the intention of the person and their motor control mechanism. This integration requires an exploration of human factors (e.g., perception of the induced movement) as well as technical factors (e.g., system latency, power control quality).
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