Dushyantha Jayatilake, Kenji Suzuki, and Kiyotaka Kamibayashi
Electrical Nerve Stimulation, Array Electrodes, Selective Innervation, Facial Expressions
Over the years, Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation has successfully been used for generating muscle contractions for limb movements and rehabilitation. Although single pair of electrodes has been the standard practice for stimulation, recently there have been some researches on the use multi field array electrodes for electrical stimulation.Array electrodes have many advantages in selective innervation of closely distributed bunch of nerves. In this study we have designed a 16 field partially flexible Platinum electrode array. The 28*28 [mm] electrode array, which is suitable for intracranial stimulations, provides a higher selectivity while being unobtrusive. We have been investigating the supporting of expressiveness for the facially paralyzed and during this study we have investigated the use of above array electrode to contract facial muscles, selectively. We have also investigated the possibility of controlling the amount of muscle contraction and simultaneous stimulation of multiple pair of electrodes. In this paper, we present our findings that could pave the way to a successful implementation of externally stimulated facial expressions.
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