State-of-the-Art of Wearable Sensors for Movement Analysis and Brain Related Signals

Dear Colleagues,

One of the major aims of the brain is to produce movements, not only those involving the body limbs but also those related to the involuntary control of the heart contraction and gut motility. All of these complex physiological controls are carried out by natural sensors embedded into the nervous system. Novel technological approaches based on new materials integrated with soft robotics and biologically inspired systems are used in a large variety of applications (health, sport, robotics, home automation, space exploration…). In this context, wearable sensors technologies are increasingly used to measure various physical, physiological, and movement parameters in real behavioral situations. In sport and, more generally, in occupational activities (e.g. driving of vehicles) the purpose of these wearable sensors is to obtain a whole picture of the physiological determinants of the best performances and/or the indicators of unsuccessful actions. Different types of sensors could be integrated in order to link the eye and body movements (kinematic or dynamic sensors), the multiple EMG activities, the brain signals (NIRS, EEG), and the other physiological markers of voluntary and involuntary control (respiration, heart-beat, skin resistance). The intrinsic complexity of these signals will necessitate the development of specific experimental paradigms during which the different sensors technologies will be tested.

This Special Issue aims to promote novel sensors technologies and experimental approaches enabling functional integration of all sensors outputs with sufficiently high timing precision to capture the physiological dynamics already accessible in wearable systems such as EMG and EEG. The integration of these multiple sensors information coming from the brain and the body will require the development of new classification pipelines and machine learning tools which could be specifically linked to sensor data processing. Thanks to the combination of sensor and neurocomputational technologies future developments of online procedures will effectively help people to use wearable sensors to increase motor and cognitive performances.

Prof. Dr. Guy Cheron
Guest Editor

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• sensors
• movement
• kinematics
• dynamics
• EEG
• EMG
• NIRS
• heart rate
• gut motility
• classification
• data processing