Transcript – Muscle Synergies, Assistive Devices and the Control of Movement

Our proposal originated through a mutual interest in the neural coalitions involved in the control of real time movements and involved in the questions concerning how best to design optimal interfaces for assistive devices, individuals with disabilities that presently limited them to operating assistive devices with their mother tongue. Also, unfortunately, prevent them from doing something that able-bodied persons take for granted, namely talking and perambulator based on our exclusive control over the muscles of the face. The idea was to design a series of experiments to explore the possibility that people could be easily taught to use slight increases in the differential activation of the four intrinsic muscles of the lips to control the direction and speed of an assistive device while simultaneously holding a conversation. To test this idea required us to first design a surface biosensor sensor that was simple, small, lightweight, with an inherently high signal to noise ratio. This is something we believe we’ve done, creating a new version of what’s referred to as a branched electrode. Unfortunately, the Covid-19 pandemic has prevented us from working with research participants to collect data this past spring and summer. But our plan is to begin running subjects, if at all possible, before the end of this fall term.