IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine - January/February 2020 - 59

of subjects is warranted so that the integration of
our device with protective gear for athletes can
prove to be vital for injury prevention.

5. O. Fukuda, T. Tsuji, M. Kaneko, and A. Otsuka, "A
human-assisting manipulator teleoperated by EMG
signals and arm motions," IEEE Trans. Robot. Autom.,
vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 210-222, Apr. 2003.

CONCLUSION
The alarm trigger functioned properly for the
moderate-intensity activity that posed a risk for
injury. During low-intensity activity, the system
did not trigger the alarms. This device was able to
immediately inform subjects of their condition;
therefore, they did not have to wait to know the
status of their knee-supporting muscles during
movement.
Two subjects showed the consistent result
with triggered alarm only on speed C when 5%
threshold applied, however when lower threshold were applied (1.5% and 2%), both of subject
also showed triggered alarm on speed A and B.
However, the applications of this device
should be expanded to collect other information
and information from muscles in other parts of
the human body, such as the arms and the core.

6. K. Cerny, "Vastus medialis oblique/vastus lateralis
muscle activity ratios for selected exercises in persons
with and without patellofemoral pain syndrome," Phys.
Therapy, vol. 75, no. 8, pp. 672-683, 1995.
7. D. Bowyer, M. Armstrong, J. Dixon, and T. O. Smith,
"The vastus medialis oblique: vastus lateralis
electromyographic intensity ratio does not differ by
gender in young participants without knee pathology,"
Physiotherapy, vol. 94, no. 2, pp. 168-173, 2008.
8. M. Khoshkhoo, A. Killingback, C. Robertson, and P. Adds,
"The effect of exercise on vastus medialis oblique muscle
architecture: An ultrasound investigation," Clin. Anatomy,
vol. 29, no. 6, pp. 752-758, 2016.
9. G. A. Paz, J. DeFreitas, M. de Freitas Maia, J. Silva,
V. Lima, and H. Miranda, "Electromyography
activation of the Lower-Limb muscles adopting a
physioball and elastic band to stabilize the knee joint
during multiple sets with submaximal loads," J. Sport
Rehabil., vol. 26, no. 5, pp. 406-414, 2017.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors gratefully acknowledge financial
support from a grant partly from the Ministry of
Science and Technology, Taiwan (107-2410-H-011
-022 -MY3). The authors also would like to thank
students Po-Yi and Yi-Da for help during data
collection.

10. B. Purcell, J. Channells, D. James, and R. Barrett,
"Use of accelerometers for detecting foot-ground
contact time during running," Proc. SPIE, vol. 6036,
pp. 1-9, 2006.
€ u
€ nen, U. C
11. K. T. Ozg
¸ elik, and S. S. Kurdak,
"Determination of an optimal threshold value for muscle
activity detection in EMG analysis," J. Sports Sci. Med.,
vol. 9, no. 4, pp. 620-628, 2010.

& REFERENCES
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Wei-Chun Hsu is an Associate Professor with the
Graduate Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Taipei,
Taiwan. Her research interests include Human
Motion Analysis and Biomechanics. Contact her at
wchsu@mail.ntust.edu.tw

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January/February 2020

Tommy Sugiarto is currently working toward the
Ph.D. degree at the Graduate Institute of Biomedical
Engineering, National Taiwan University of Science
and Technology, Taipei, Taiwan. He is also an Associate Engineer with the Industrial Technology
Research Institute, Zhudong, Taiwan. Contact him at
D10622817@mail.ntust.edu.tw

59
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