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Investigation of the Effect and Robustness of Thresholding Time-domain Features on Hand Movement Classification

Translated title

Investigation of the Effect and Robustness of Thresholding

Authors

;

Term

4. term

Publication year

2015

Submitted on

Pages

102

Abstract

Tidsdomænefunktioner (TD) bruges ofte i mønstergenkendelsesbaserede kontrolsystemer. Tre udbredte TD-funktioner – nul-kryds (ZC), hældningstegnsskifte (SC) og Willison-amplitude (WAMP) – benytter tærskler for at dæmpe baggrundsstøj. I litteraturen er tærsklerne dog ikke ensartede, og der er kun gjort begrænset arbejde for at forstå deres betydning og robusthed. Denne undersøgelse præsenterer en metode til at undersøge TD-tærskler med udgangspunkt i klassifikationspræstation. Vi optog multikanal overflade-elektromyografi (sEMG) under håndbevægelser over tre separate dage og vurderede effekt og robusthed af tærskler ved hjælp af et separerbarhedsmål (spredningsmatrix-separerbarhedskriterium, SMSC), en maskinlæringsklassifikator (støttevektormaskine, SVM) og statistiske tests. De identiske tærskler, der blev fundet for ZC, SC og WAMP, lå mellem 0,67 μV og 1,76 μV på tværs af alle kanaler og dage. Vi identificerede også et anbefalet interval for en parameter r mellem 0 og 0,52 til brug i fremtidige tærskelundersøgelser. Resultaterne viste desuden, at tærsklerne ikke var robuste over en periode på seks dage. Det peger på, at tærskelundersøgelser for TD-funktioner bør udføres for hver specifik applikation. Vi anbefaler at bruge den foreslåede metode til at undersøge og fastsætte TD-tærskler i fremtidige anvendelser.

Time-domain (TD) features are widely used in pattern recognition-based control systems. Three common TD features—zero crossing (ZC), slope sign change (SC), and Willison amplitude (WAMP)—use thresholds to reduce background noise. However, thresholds reported in the literature are inconsistent, and their effects and robustness are not well understood. This study introduces a method to examine TD-feature thresholds based on classification performance. We recorded multi-channel surface electromyography (sEMG) during hand movements on three separate days and evaluated threshold effects and robustness using a separability measure (scatter matrix separability criterion, SMSC), a machine-learning classifier (support vector machine, SVM), and statistical tests. The identical thresholds identified for ZC, SC, and WAMP lay between 0.67 μV and 1.76 μV across all channels and days. We also identified a recommended interval for a parameter r between 0 and 0.52 to guide future threshold investigations. Furthermore, thresholds were not robust over a period of six days. This suggests that TD-feature thresholding should be investigated for each specific application. We recommend using the proposed method to study and set TD thresholds in future applications.

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