The main drawback of the commercially available myoelectric hand prostheses is the absence of somatosensory feedback. We recently developed a feedback interface for multiple degrees of freedom myoelectric prosthesis that allows proprioceptive and sensory information (i.e., grasping force) to be transmitted to the wearer instantaneously. High information bandwidth is achieved through intelligent control of spatiotemporal distribution of electrical pulses over a custom-designed electrode array. As electrotactile sensations are location-dependent and the developed interface requires that electrical stimuli are perceived to be of the same intensity on all locations, a calibration procedure is of high importance. The aim of this study was to gain more insight into the calibration procedure and optimize this process by leveraging a priori knowledge. For this purpose, we conducted a study with 9 able-bodied subjects performing 10 sessions of the array electrode calibration. Based on the collected data, we optimized and simplified the calibration procedure by adapting the initial (baseline) amplitude values in the calibration algorithm. The results suggest there is an individual pattern of stimulation amplitudes across 16 electrode pads for each subject, which is not affected by the initial amplitudes. Moreover, the number of user actions performed and the time needed for the calibration procedure are significantly reduced by the proposed methodology.

中文翻译：

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肌电手假体多通道电触觉反馈半自动校准算法的优化。

市售的肌电手假体的主要缺点是缺乏体感反馈。我们最近开发了一种用于多个自由度肌电假体的反馈界面，该界面允许将本体感觉和感觉信息（即抓握力）立即传输给佩戴者。通过在定制设计的电极阵列上智能控制电脉冲的时空分布，可以实现高信息带宽。由于电触感与位置有关，并且发达的界面要求在所有位置上都感觉到电刺激的强度相同，因此校准程序非常重要。这项研究的目的是获得对校准程序的更多了解，并通过利用先验知识来优化此过程。为此，我们对9名身体健康的受试者进行了10次阵列电极校准的研究。基于收集的数据，我们通过在校准算法中调整初始（基准）幅度值来优化和简化校准过程。结果表明，每个受试者在16个电极垫上都有一个单独的刺激幅度模式，不受初始幅度的影响。而且，所提出的方法大大减少了执行的用户动作的数量和校准过程所需的时间。我们通过在校准算法中调整初始（基准）幅度值来优化和简化校准过程。结果表明，每个受试者在16个电极垫上都有一个单独的刺激幅度模式，不受初始幅度的影响。而且，所提出的方法大大减少了执行的用户动作的数量和校准过程所需的时间。我们通过在校准算法中调整初始（基准）幅度值来优化和简化校准过程。结果表明，每个受试者在16个电极垫上都有一个单独的刺激幅度模式，不受初始幅度的影响。而且，所提出的方法大大减少了执行的用户动作的数量和校准过程所需的时间。