Electromyographic Methods for the Measurement of Physiological Costs Associated with Operating Hand-Held Tools and Computer Input Devices

Abstract

Knowledge about practicable methods of appropriate recording and processing of myoelectric data which has been accumulated and further developed during the last decade has been fed into a program system. The same is true for a set of already carried-out and published investigations into the ergonomic evaluation of keyboards, armrests, and wrist rests as well as various hand-held tools. Making use of the specifically developed and well-proven software packages which can be loaded into almost all PCs for recording, analyzing, and standardizing electromyographic data, even a user who until now was less familiar with these tasks gains access to electromyography as an efficient and important ergonomic method applicable with reasonable expenditure both in the laboratory and in the field.