Point‐of‐care stress detection of muscles using a flexible surface potential measurement prototype

Abstract

AbstractDesign and development of an affordable, user‐friendly and portable proof‐of‐concept prototype for the detection of the physical stress of the muscles of different human body parts have been reported. The prototype is composed of four major components—sensor, signal processing unit (SPU), power supply and display units. The sensor consists of a soft and flexible substrate with high density array of micro/nano patters on polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), which in turn is coated with ultra‐thin layers of electrically conducting aluminium (Al) and reduced graphene oxide (RGO) layers. The conductive layer coated on the flexible PDMS substrate helps in detecting the raw surface electromyogarphic (RSEMG) potential of fingertip, tip‐toe, wrist or tongue, once they come in contact with the sensor. The patterned Al/RGO coated PDMS substrate generates an electrical signal, which can be correlated to the stress level of the body parts at a very high precision. The electrical signal of the sensor is transmitted wirelessly to a mobile android application for the display of the results with the help of the SPU. The prototype can be useful for the early detection of stress disorders related to heart, nerves and muscles, among others.