Regressing grasping using force myography: an exploratory study

BACKGROUND: Partial hand amputation forms more than 90% of all upper limb amputations. This amputation has a notable effect on the amputee’s life. To improve the quality of life for partial hand amputees different prosthesis options, including externally-powered prosthesis, have been investigated. The focus of this work is to explore force myography (FMG) as a technique for regressing grasping movement accompanied by wrist position variations. This study can lay the groundwork for a future investigation of FMG as a technique for controlling externally-powered prostheses continuously. METHODS: Ten able-bodied participants performed three hand movements while their wrist was fixed in one of six predefined positions. The angle between Thumb and Index finger ([Formula: see text] ), and Thumb and Middle finger ([Formula: see text] ) were calculated as measures of grasping movements. Two approaches were examined for estimating each angle: (i) one regression model, trained on data from all wrist positions and hand movements; (ii) a classifier that identified the wrist position followed by a separate regression model for each wrist position. The possibility of training the system using a limited number of wrist positions and testing it on all positions was also investigated. RESULTS: The first approach had a correlation of determination ([Formula: see text] ) of 0.871 for [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] . Using the second approach [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] were obtained. The first approach is over two times faster than the second approach while having similar performance; thus the first approach was selected to investigate the effect of the wrist position variations. Training with 6 or 5 wrist positions yielded results which were not statistically significant. A statistically significant decrease in performance resulted when less than five wrist positions were used for training. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate the potential of FMG to regress grasping movement, accompanied by wrist position variations, with a regression model for each angle. Also, it is necessary to include more than one wrist position in the training phase. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12938-018-0593-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.