Flexible dry electrode for recording surface electromyogram

A new type of flexible dry electrode is examined for its suitable for surface electromyography (SEMG). SEMG signals were collected from the both biceps of a subject, using the dry electrodes and standard AgAgCl electrodes, during three tasks: 1) rest, 2) an isometric contraction, and 3) a dynamic contraction. Signal quality indices (signal-to-motion artifact ratio, maximum-to-minimum drop in power ratio, signal to noise ratio, and power spectrum deformation) were computed to assess the SEMG. Results show that the dry electrodes can acquire SEMG signals that are nearly indistinguishable from the SEMG signals acquired using the AgAgCl electrodes. The dry electrodes did appear to exhibit a slightly high susceptibility to motion artifact; however, the motion artifact remained below 10 Hz, which can be filtered out for most SEMG applications.