Wireless control of functional electrical stimulation systems.

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 present rehabilitative systems, the patient divides the gait cycleinto stance and swing phases via pushbuttons mounted on the handles of thecrutches, which arehard-wired to the functional electrical stimulator. The surface-mounttechnology based telemetry system, which makes use of the radiofrequency mediumat 40 MHz, was developed toprovide wireless control of the FES system. Signals from crutch pushbuttonswere coded and transferred from the transmitter to the receiver. The receiverwas firmly attached to the patient's waist and was connected to thestimulator.