Ongoing & past

Scientific Projects

We participate in regional, national, and international research projects collaborating with leading institutions to advance the understanding of neural and muscular function. Our work in these projects includes creating a wearable device to measure muscle activity during rehabilitation, improving signal detection for identifying personal migraine triggers, using EEG for faster and more cost-effective screening methods, and optimizing supernumerary robotic limb control with HD-EMG signals. By integrating advanced signal processing, machine learning, and biomedical engineering, we aim to contribute to scientific progress and make a meaningful difference by helping people regain functionality and improve their quality of life.

MyoStride: Portable HD-EMG-driven digital human twins in the clinical practice

Objective: Development and demonstration of user-friendly, affordable, and reliable High-Density Electromyography (HD-EMG) - driven musculoskeletal modeling paradigm for estimating muscle function during rehabilitation processes.

In the Netherlands, 265.000 patients with neurological or neuromuscular disorders face mobility issues due to reduced muscle function in the lower leg, making rehabilitation crucial. However, current treatments lack precise measurements of muscle activity, leading to suboptimal care and longer recovery times. To address this, this project is developing a wearable device, the MyoStride smart sock, which measures muscle activity during rehabilitation. The technology, initially validated in a previous project (GUTS), will be refined to be wireless, automatically calibrated, and integrated with practitioners' IT systems. 

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Funds for Regional Development: OP Oost.

Migraine@Home

Objective: The aim of the research is to detect signals of an approaching migraine attack at an earlier stage and to identify personal triggers for such attacks. It is the first study in which migraine patients are monitored in their home environment.

Migraine is a common brain disorder with unpredictable attacks that have significant personal and social impacts. While the exact causes remain unclear, migraine patients are hypersensitive to certain triggers like fatigue, stress, or menstruation. Currently, there are no reliable measures to predict an impending attack, as it depends on both personal triggers and the brain’s fluctuating sensitivity. To address this, researchers are developing an innovative E-headache diary to track individual triggers while simultaneously measuring brain activity using easy-to-use headcaps at home. As part of this project, advanced EEG headcaps—developed through collaboration between LUMC, TU Delft, and TMSi-Brand—are being optimized for home use, allowing patients to perform self-measurements. TU Delft is improving measurement and data processing methods, while TMSi-Brand focuses on enhancing electrophysiological signal detection. This research aims to provide better insights into migraine triggers and brain sensitivity, ultimately helping patients manage and anticipate attacks more effectively.

The research project 'Migraine@Home' contributes to the scientific program Medical Neurodelta, in which scientists from the LUMC, TU Delft, and Erasmus MC work closely together in the Medical Delta context.

Intuitive and Seamless Human-Robot Augmentation: HARIA

Objective: The goal of the project is to develop AI-powered wearable and grounded supernumerary robotic limbs and wearable sensorimotor interfaces with methods for augmentation. This will enable chronic stroke and spinal cord-injured individuals to directly control and feel the extra limbs through wearable interfaces.

HARIA re-defines the nature of physical human-robot interaction (HRI), laying the foundations of a new research field, i.e., human sensorimotor augmentation, whose constitutive elements are: i) AI-powered wearable and grounded supernumerary robotic limbs and wearable sensorimotor interfaces; ii) methods for augmentation enabling users to directly control and feel the extra limbs exploiting the redundancy of the human sensorimotor system through wearable interfaces; iii) clear target populations, i.e., chronic stroke and spinal cord injured individuals, and real-world application scenarios to demonstrate the extraordinary value of the paradigm shift that HARIA represents in HRI and the great impact on the motivation to re-use the paretic arm(s), with consequent improvement of the quality of life.

Our role in the project is to provide high-quality HD-EMG signals from target muscles to optimize supernumerary robotic limb control.

HARIA is a European collaborative project that involves the Università degli Studi di Siena, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Karlsruher Institut für Technologie, Fondazione Santa Lucia, Ottobock SE & CO. KGAAE, Lunds Universitet, Hospital Nacional de Parapléjicos SESCAM, and TMSi. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe program under grant agreement No. 101070292. HARIA on the CORDIS EU Portal

KinderCap - EEG-based Hearing/Vision Screening for Children

Objective: The KinderCap will provide fast, automatic, and response-free hearing and vision screening for children aged 2-6 by using EEG, brain-computer interface (BCI), and artificial intelligence (AI) technology to analyze brain responses to stimuli, making it 20 times faster and more cost effective than traditional methods.

Current hearing and vision screening tests are often inaccurate, especially for young children who struggle to respond consistently, leading to missed or delayed diagnoses that impact their development. In this project, the developed KinderCap, an EEG-based system will provide a fast, automatic, response-free hearing and vision screening for children aged 2-6. Using brain-computer interface (BCI) technology and AI (MindAffect), the system analyzes brain responses to stimuli while the child simply watches a video. This innovation, using EEG Headcaps from the TMSi-Brand, is 20 times faster and more cost effective than traditional methods.

Supported by the MIT R&D partnership grant, this project aims to certify and launch KinderCap in Europe and the US, filling a critical gap in mandated screening programs and ensuring early, accurate diagnoses for vulnerable children.

Glaucoma Analysis Monitoring (GLAM)

Objective: The goal of this project is to develop and test a quick, EEG-based product that measures optic nerve activity in the visual cortex for early detection, diagnosis, and monitoring of glaucoma.

Glaucoma is a leading cause of blindness, affecting approximately 64 million people worldwide—a number expected to rise by over 70% by 2040. The disease is difficult to detect in its early stages, and current diagnostic methods are time-consuming, expensive, and reliant on patient responses, leading to significant underdiagnosis. The GLAM System aims to revolutionize glaucoma detection and monitoring by measuring optic nerve activity in the visual cortex without requiring patient input, making testing faster, more accurate, and cost-effective.

Supported by the MIT R&D Grant, this groundbreaking system is being developed through the collaboration of TMSi-Brand, MindAffect, and MFI, combining expertise in hardware and software innovation. The GLAM System has the potential to transform preventative vision care, ensuring earlier diagnosis and better management of glaucoma, ultimately preserving vision and improving the quality of life for an aging population.

Get Under the Skin (GUTS) Project

Objective: Develop a system that enables optimal, personalized rehabilitation of patients with gait disturbances as a result of a stroke. The fast and accurate functional diagnosis required for this is based on an exact determination of the muscle strength of individual muscles by measuring surface electromyography (sEMG) in combination with the kinematics of the skeleton (i.e. joint angles).

Each year, over 15 million people suffer from strokes worldwide, yet current neuro-rehabilitation treatments remain sub-optimal due to reliance on subjective movement assessments. This project aims to transform stroke rehabilitation by replacing subjective evaluations with personalized, objective, and quantitative assessments of muscle function. The GUTs system will develop a soft, stretchable leg covering that measures high-density electromyography, joint kinematics, and musculoskeletal forces to provide precise data for rehabilitation. This innovation, developed by a consortium including the University of Twente, TMSi-Brand, Bard.zo, and Sint Maartenskliniek, will enable clinicians to design and perform more effective, personalized treatments for stroke patients with gait disturbances, ultimately improving rehabilitation outcomes.

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Funds for Regional Development: OP Oost.

A full list of scientific projects will be added soon.