Evaluation of sonomyography (SMG) for control compared with electromyography (EMG) in a discrete target tracking task

Most of the commercial upper-limb externally powered prosthetic devices are controlled by electromyography (EMG) signals. We previously proposed using the real-time change of muscle thickness detected using ultrasound, namely sonomyography (SMG), for the control of prostheses. In this study, we compared the performance of subjects using 1-D SMG signal and surface EMG signal, using a discrete target tracking protocol involving a series of letter cancellation tasks. Each task involved using grip force, EMG or SMG from a wrist extensor muscle to move a cursor to one of 5 locations on a computer screen, at the first four of which were located a letter and last of which was a word of "NEXT". The target was defined by the location showing the letter "E" and, once the subject reached this target, they were instructed to "cancel" the E from the screen, using a button operated by the contralateral hand. A paired t-test revealed that the percentage of letters correctly cancelled with force/angle and SMG signal in isometric force control, and with SMG in wrist extension were significantly higher than with EMG (P<0.05) for both isometric control and wrist extension. The results suggest that SMG signal has great potential as an alternative to EMG for prosthetic control.