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A Microcontroller-Based Portable Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulator via Ultra-comfortable Tattoo Electrodes for Haptic Feedback

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Proceedings of SIE 2023 (SIE 2023)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering ((LNEE,volume 1113))

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Abstract

The non-invasive electrical stimulation of nerves requires neural stimulators with high voltage compliance to pass current through the skin and reach the targeted nerves. This study proposes a low-cost, microcontroller-based, wearable, high-voltage compliant current stimulator with four independent channels based on Components-Off-The-Shelf (COTS). The proposed system implements a voltage-current converter capable of generating custom stimulating waveforms with microseconds temporal resolution. The ±90 V voltage compliance enables the system to adapt to the possible variations in electrode-skin impedance during a daily life activity, allowing it to stimulate with currents up to 9 mA. The system was preliminary tested on humans using ultra-conformable Parylene-C based tattoo electrodes, showing the possibility of stimulating median and ulnar nerves and evoking sensation on the hand through more-than-wearable and completely unobtrusive technology.

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Acknowledgment

This study was partly supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program under Grant agreement no. 899822 (SOMA project) and by the Italian Institute for Labour Accidents (INAIL) Prosthetic Center with WiFi-MyoHand project (CUP: E59E19001460005).

This work was partially funded by Fondazione di Sardegna, project BioVino (CUP F75F21001360007).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Cagliari, 090123, Cagliari, Italy

    Riccardo Collu, Antonello Mascia, Piero Cosseddu & Massimo Barbaro

  2. Research Unit of Advanced Robotics and Human-Centred Technologies (CREO Lab), Università Campus Biomedico di Roma, 00128, Rome, Italy

    Roberto Paolini, Francesca Cordella & Loredana Zollo

Authors
  1. Riccardo Collu
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  2. Antonello Mascia
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  3. Roberto Paolini
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  4. Francesca Cordella
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  5. Loredana Zollo
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  6. Piero Cosseddu
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  7. Massimo Barbaro
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Riccardo Collu .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Engineering, University of Messina, Messina, Italy

    Carmine Ciofi

  2. Dipartimento di Ingegneria Elettronica, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy

    Ernesto Limiti

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Collu, R. et al. (2024). A Microcontroller-Based Portable Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulator via Ultra-comfortable Tattoo Electrodes for Haptic Feedback. In: Ciofi, C., Limiti, E. (eds) Proceedings of SIE 2023. SIE 2023. Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering, vol 1113. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-48711-8_47

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-48711-8_47

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-48710-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-48711-8

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