Hello David. Sorry I cannot help you, I have no experience with any of these two systems. However, I am quite interested in references about "easy-to-use" emg devices, too.

I only have experience with Mega Electronics and Delsys. Mega is a very robust and reliable device. I have been working with it for the last 15 years. Delsys is very sophisticated, signal capture process is quick but signal analysis is quite tedious and there are some problems to synchronize video (so, good for laboratory, not so good for field captures).

Best wishes,

Elvira.

Hi, Biometrics is a very basic EMG system. The software does not provide advanced analysis tools and there are only two types of sensors which differ only in bandwidth. The signal quality is OK for time domain analysis of large muscles when there is low impedance, though with less than ideal participants you might struggle. Signal analysis in the frequency domain can be tricky, though it is possible. I have limited experience with Bioelettronica EMG systems. Their range of amplifiers and sensors is much larger and their software can complete more advanced analyses (for example conduction velocity and signal decomposition). Signal quality with long cables can be an issue, but the team are very good at working with you to solve any problems. I suspect that biometrics are slightly cheaper, so I guess it depends on your budget and needs.

Hope that helps

Regards

Dan

Ciao David,

I have been using the OT stuff since about 10 years and I am pretty satisfied.

I use mainly HDEMG and bipolar, but have had some (positive) experience with

intramuscular too.

The signal quality is good (especially since they switched to 16 bits A/D and removed the variable gain) and the system is overall quite robust and durable. I use their software only for acquisition, and not for analysis (perform my own in Matlab) so I cannot discuss how well it is working, but I have seen it is in constant development and has improved greatly over the years (you can even perform surface EMG decomposition for free).

A big advantage of OT is that it is relatively inexpensive, if you consider the price-per-channel aspect. So if you plan to go for HD or to perform massive multi-muscle bipolar recordings, it could be the way to go.

Running costs are to be considered if you are planning on doing a lot of HD, since the semi-disposable matrices are still relatively expensive (I may suggest to spend a little more for a dry matrix, if appropriate).

Feel free to PM me if you need more information :)

LEonardo

Dear Ana Elvira Planas Lara ,

I am so grateful for your help.

Best Regards.

Dear Dan Robbins ,

Following your comments I just concluded the same. However I think there is a problem in synchronization of Bioelettronica EMG systems with other devices like motion capture systems. I am searching for a way to solve this problem.

Thanks for your useful comment.

Best Regards.

Dave

Hi David,

In our lab we just used BNC analog outputs, the system seemed to work well. I'm not sure if all amplifiers have BNC outputs though.

Regards

Dan

Dear Leonardo Gizzi ,

I am really grateful for your help. your comments are very useful for me.

Best Wishes.

Dave

Dear David Fazeli ,

no worries, I have been in a similar impasse myself in the past.

On the synchronization note, I have a couple of thoughts to share:

The OT amplifiers have up do 16 analog inputs and one analog output. What I normally do is either send the TTL waveform from the motion capture system to the EMG amplifier (and care to start and finish the recording of the EMG before and after -respectively- the recording of the motion) or to mirror one EMG channel and send it to the analog input of the motion capture system.

At that point if I used the first strategy I cut the EMG so that it matches the part of the analog signal which shows a high logical value, or if I used the second I simply cross-correlate the two signals, find their time delay and synchronize them.

If you talk about triggering, instead, I know that there is a digital I/O but I never had the necessity to use it (but you can still ask the people from the company to check if their machine can do what you exactly need ).

Best

LEo

Dear Leonardo Gizzi ,

Many thanks for sharing your valuable ideas.

Kind Regards.

Dave

Hi David,

I saw this threat and think there is another interesting advantage of OT EMG amplifiers, which my dear friend Leonardo Gizzi mentioned in his previous comment. The high amount of analog inputs is highly valuable and facilitate tremendously the acquisition of data for some purposes. We've been working currently with concentric/eccentric contractions and HD-EMG, and we can acquire all dynamometer data into the same file along with the EMG, facilitating data processing quite a lot.

Hope the comments help you.

Best,

Anderson

Dear Anderson Souza Oliveira ,

Many thanks for your useful comments.

Best Regards.

Dave

Dear David,

I have been working with OTB EMG amplifiers and I have also experience with other systems too (Delsys). The best of this system (OTB), is the multiple possibilities that you have to collect EMG data [classical EMG (bipolar configuration), multichannel (arrays and matrix) and intramuscular options]. I already applied all these possibilities and I’m very happy with the quality of the EMG signal. Moreover, the possibility of acquire other signals coming from a dynamometer or a force plate (I used with kistler plataform) it’s great.

In comparison to other systems, this one offers you several possibilities according to your specific research purposes (muscle activation, conduction velocity, motor unit behaviour, identification of enervention zones, etc.). From technical point of view, I also share the same opinion as my dear friends Leonardo and Anderson. Regarding to the software, I know that they are constantly improving, but I’m just using to collect data. Then we are usually using matlab for data analysis.

Hope that helps

Kind regards,

Dear @ Carolina Vila-Chã,

I am so grateful for your useful information.

Best wishes.

Dave.