P-18　Development of a lower-back muscle activity sensor system for educational support for care workers

In training institutions for care workers, incorrect operation often causes a pain in the lower-back to trainees. The instructors have difficulty in judging whether the trainees perform an operation correctly without monitoring muscle activity in the lower-back. Accordingly, the purposes of the pres...

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Published inNingen kogaku. The Japanese journal of ergonomics Vol. 53; no. Supplement2; pp. S736 - S737
Main Authors MAENAKA, Kazusuke, YOTO, Tsuyoshi Yi, NAKAI, Akira, MURAMATSU, Shigeo, KOMATSU, Takeshi, SHIMOMURA, Yoshihiro
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Japan Ergonomics Society 2017
Subjects
care worker
educational support
electromyogram
lower-back muscle activity
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ISSN0549-4974
1884-2844
DOI10.5100/jje.53.S736

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Summary:In training institutions for care workers, incorrect operation often causes a pain in the lower-back to trainees. The instructors have difficulty in judging whether the trainees perform an operation correctly without monitoring muscle activity in the lower-back. Accordingly, the purposes of the present study were (a) to produce a sensor to measure muscle activity in the lower-back and (b) to develop the education support system which shows the instructors a simultaneous display of muscle and physical activities in the lower-back and video of the operations. The experimental sensors consist of six channel electromyogram (EMG) sensors, three-axis acceleration, angular velocity and geomagnetic sensors. The software for data acquisition which records data from individual sensors synchronously was developed using LabVIEW 2015. Using this all-in-one experimental sensor system, five subjects had their lower-back muscle activity measured while lifting a dumbbell. The data acquired was compared to the data from the same experiment monitored by existing, commercially available non-integrated systems. Consequently, the experimental system could record the data smoothly from the sensors on the lower-back as expected. The integrated EMG values of the erector spinae muscles obtained by the experimental system and the commercially available EMG system had a strong positive correlation. Hereafter, our work will be to validate the experimental system by comparing the other data sources to existing sensor systems.
ISSN:0549-4974
1884-2844
DOI:10.5100/jje.53.S736