Learning Supportive System to Electrical Stimulation

Summary

Electrical stimulation to humans has been mainly used for medical applications such as low-frequency therapy equipment and walking support for patients with unilateral paralysis. However, unlike other physical stimuli, electrical stimulation can induce contraction irrespective of the intention of the muscles given.

In this research, we measures human characteristics to electrical stimulation and developed a skill learning support system that applies the properties of such electrical stimulation to healthy human learning support. Human motion is measured using a camera, and the movement is recognized by image processing, and electrical stimulation is given in a direction to modify according to the motion, aiming at acquisition of a sensible skill. This system is more intuitive than a visual learning support device such as visual feedback, and is more unconstrained, scalable, power saving and more flexible than other physical tactile learning support system using a motor or the like. It is a high degree system and it is considered to be a more useful system than the other systems in the motor learning support.

Projects

1. Comparison of reaction speeds between electrical stimulation and other stimuli
   In this experiment, by measuring how quickly a human can respond to electrical stimulation compared with other stimuli such as visual or auditory stimulation, we acquire knowledge about the applicability of electrical stimulation during operation.
2. Investigation of the effect for learning to use electrical stimulation in trajectory task
   It is not clear how much stimulation of electric stimulation itself contributes to human learning. Therefore, we compare and verify how the difference in the effect of human being learning the motion between electrical stimulation and vibration in case of erroneous movement is checked by camera feedback.
3. Learning supportive training system
   In the experiment, we learned the task of throwing the ball straight to modify the inclination of the ball with the subject of swing of bowling using this system. As a result, an improvement of 32% in inclination at the time of swing was observed compared with the initial, and the effectiveness of this system was confirmed. In this project, we investigated the response speed of human to electrical stimulation and examined the learning effect of stimulus itself using high speed camera. Since the device of this time does not need to rebuild the device for other motion learning tasks, there is a possibility that this learning support system can be applied to a wide variety of sports motions in the same device.

• Electrical stimulation device
  


• Experiment to measure human response to external stimuli
  


• Skill learning experiment
  


• Arm setup in bowling task
  


• Swing motion during bowling experiment
  

Refference

1. Sho Tatsuno, Tomohiko Hayakawa, Masatoshi Ishikawa: Real-Time Learning Supportive Training System Based on Electrical Stimulation (WHC2017), (Munich, Germany, 2017.6.6-9) to be appear.
2. Sho Tatsuno, Tomohiko Hayakawa, Masatoshi Ishikawa: Trajectory Adjustment System for Learning based on Electrical Stimulation (AH2017), (California, United States, 2017.3.16-18) to be appear.
3. Sho Tatsuno, Tomohiko Hayakawa, Masatoshi Ishikawa: Comparison of Reaction Times in Response to Electrical and Visual Stimulation Using a High-speed Camera (SMC2016), (Butapest, Hungary, 2016.10.9-12)/Proceedings, pp.1251-1256, 2016.