MyoWare -Based Muscle Switch for Control, Therapy, and Communication in Individuals with Physical Disabilities

Abstract

Physically challenged and elderly persons have significant challenges managing their home environment and using electrical appliances and computers. This research suggests a cost-effective wearable muscle-activated switch to aid those with physical disabilities. The muscle-activated switch is created using MyoWare  muscle sensors for data collection to determine the activity in the target muscle through Electromyography (EMG) signals and to analyze it for control, gaming therapy, and communication for individuals with physical disabilities. The Arduino facilitates the human and computer interaction and control of things via muscle signals. The BluSMiRF Bluetooth device enables wireless connection in our system, which was developed to help physically challenged individuals use computers and manage home appliances via Wi-Fi switches using Grid-3. This muscle sensor switch's originality lies in its ability to connect with any Bluetooth-compatible device via control by any specific muscle. The system underwent testing on a laptop using Grid-3 software for text-to-speech conversion, speech therapy, and environmental control. Individuals with physical disabilities may choose several modules from the Grid-3 program, including environmental control for managing electrical devices, text-to-speech conversion for Aphasia sufferers, and game treatment.