Voluntary telemetry control of functional electrical stimulators

With the assistance of crutches and functional electrical stimulation (FES) we are able to restore standing and simple gait in some spinal cord injured (SCI) patients. In the present rehabilitative systems the patient divides the gait cycle into 'stance' and 'swing' phase by using pushbuttons mounted in the handles of the crutches. These are then hard wired to the functional electrical stimulator. We present the development and evaluation of a surface mount technology based telemetry system that provides reliable and interference resistant wireless control of FES assisted walking. The system makes use of radio frequency carriers operating at a frequency of 40 MHz. Crutch pushbutton signals are coded and transferred from the transmitter placed in the crutch to the receiver which is firmly attached to the patient's waist and connected to the stimulator. The telemetry system was found to be of special importance for both complete and incomplete SCI subjects and is currently in use at the Rehabilitation Institute of the Republic of Slovenia.