Properties of different types of dry electrodes for wearable smart monitoring devices

Abstract

Wearable smart monitors (WSMs) applied for the estimation of electrophysiological signals are of utmost interest for a non-stressed life. WSM which records heart muscle activities could signalize timely a life-threatening event. The heart muscle activities are typically recorded across the heart at the surface of the body; hence, a WSM monitor requires high-quality surface electrodes. The electrodes used in the clinical settings [i.e. silver/silver chloride (Ag/AgCl) with the gel] are not practical for the daily out of clinic usage. A practical WSM requires the application of a dry electrode with stable and reproducible electrical characteristics. We compared the characteristics of six types of dry electrodes and one gelled electrode during short-term recordings sessions (≈30 s) in real-life conditions: Orbital, monolithic polymer plated with Ag/AgCl, and five rectangular shaped 10 × 6 × 2 mm electrodes (Orbital, Ag electrode, Ag/AgCl electrode, gold electrode and stainless-steel AISI304). The results of a well-controlled analysis which considered motion artifacts, line noise and junction potentials suggest that among the dry electrodes Ag/AgCl performs the best. The Ag/AgCl electrode is in average three times better compared with the stainless-steel electrode often used in WSMs.

Electromyography Wearable Device Applied to the Medical Field

“…The big drawback is that it lacks integrated Bluetooth on the board itself, so it is necessary to add a module capable of carrying out this function. We have discussed the chosen component in the previous chapter, the HC-05 (Figure 9), whose characteristics have already been described [15]. Now all the components that will make the operation of our wearable electromyography device possible are defined.…”

A review on the recent developments in design and integration of electromyography textile electrodes for biosignal monitoring

“…The effect of clothing design patterns on the performance of embroidered EMG electrodes’ during arm movement has been compared with the conventional hydrogel Ag/AgCl electrodes. 68 When additional electronic components are integrated into the textiles, the textiles are termed as ‘smart textiles’ or ‘e-textiles’. 1,69 The process of imparting specific functionality through electronic integration is referred to as the ‘functionalization’ of the textiles.…”

A Database of Simultaneously Recorded ECG Signals With and Without EMG Noise

“…Despite the excellent performance of the Ag/AgCl gel electrodes in recording ECG signals, they are not suitable for mobile ECG devices. It has been shown that in mobile ECG monitoring, the orbital electrodes have better performance [16] . Hence, the second finger lead was recorded by a pair of orbital electrodes (Orbital Research Inc., Cleveland, OH, USA) [15] fixed to the fingers with a medical adhesive tape.…”