Development of a real-time hand gesture recognition wristband based on sEMG and IMU sensing

Human computer interaction is becoming more integrated in daily life with the proliferation of mobile devices and virtual reality technology. Hand gesture recognition is a potentially promising mechanism to facilitate human computer interaction, however wrist-mounted surface electromyography (sEMG) hand gesture classification is particularly challenging given the relatively small sEMG signals as compared to traditional forearm-based sEMG sensing. This paper introduces the development of a wristband for detecting eight air gestures and four surface gestures at two different force levels through sEMG and inertial measurement unit (IMU) sensor fusion. To validate the wrist-worn device, ten healthy subjects performed hand gesture recognition experiments resulting in a total average recognition rate of 92.6% for air gestures and 88.8% for surface gestures. This paper demonstrates the potential of wrist-worn devices for accurate hand gesture recognition applications.