Toward a Wireless Wearable System for Bidirectional Human-Machine Interface With Gesture Recognition and Vibration Feedback

The research on bidirectional human-machine interface (BHMI) is of great significance, which can realize the interaction between human and machine. As the traditional Human-Machine Interface (HMI) device is limited by its wired connection and unidirectional functionality, this paper intends to develop a wireless wearable solution for BHMI with gesture recognition and vibration feedback. Compact design and wireless connection improve the flexibility and wearability of bidirectional interface node (BIN). By establishing a Distributed Wireless Sensor Network (DWSN), the proposed system allows up to 8 BINs to detect muscle activities simultaneously and control each Linear Resonant Actuator (LRA) independently. The data transmission throughput of the proposed system can be reduced by transmitting signal features instead of raw signals. With a sample rate of 2000 Hz and a resolution of 12 bits, BIN can achieve 94.48%±4.56% classification accuracy of six gestures. To evaluate the performance of the system’s bidirectional functionality, virtual control experiment was carried out. The experimental results show that the completion rate of the virtual control experiment reached 87% within 3.5s with vibration feedback. Overall, the outcomes of this study have great potential to promote the practical applications of bidirectional human-machine interaction, including rehabilitation therapy, fatigue prevention, virtual reality/augmented reality (VR/AR), and sensorimotor control of artificial devices.