125 Years Later: The Future of Electromyographic Clothing

The first ideas and patents of textile electromyography (muscle activity measurement, shirt - EMG for short) are already more than 120 years old. Nevertheless, no functioning textile and mobile EMG system exists as of 2023. This presentation describes challenges, current developments, trends and possibilities to make a system feasible by the 125th anniversary.
Historically, the signal-to-noise ratio was a major hurdle, but today a wide range of materials is available for measurement. This raises the issues of mobility, biocompatibility, contact to the skin and stretchability.
Even than measuring EMG signals is relatively easy, but there are great difficulties with the correct interpretation of the signals to reveal the whole potential of knowing one’s muscles.
This lecture specialises explicitly in the field of printed electromyography.