# An EMG Gesture Recognition System with Flexible High-Density Sensors and Brain-Inspired High-Dimensional Classifier

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1802.10237 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/1802.10237/

## Key facts

- Cited by 13 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 28 Feb 2018.

## Built on by (most cited first, 13 of 13)

- [A Survey on Hyperdimensional Computing aka Vector Symbolic Architectures, Part II: Applications, Cognitive Models, and Challenges](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.15424/) (2021)
- [Memory-Efficient, Limb Position-Aware Hand Gesture Recognition using Hyperdimensional Computing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.05267/) (2021)
- [Learning from Hypervectors: A Survey on Hypervector Encoding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.00685/) (2023)
- [A Survey of Few-Shot Learning for Biomedical Time Series](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.02485/) (2024)
- [A 5 μ W Standard Cell Memory-based Configurable Hyperdimensional Computing Accelerator for Always-on Smart Sensing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.02758/) (2021)
- [Capturing complex hand movements and object interactions using machine learning-powered stretchable smart textile gloves](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.02221/) (2024)
- [The Hyperdimensional Transform: a Holographic Representation of Functions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.16065/) (2023)
- [The Hyperdimensional Transform for Distributional Modelling, Regression and Classification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.08150/) (2023)
- [Hyperdimensional computing: a fast, robust and interpretable paradigm for biological data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.17572/) (2024)
- [Modeling and Predicting Transistor Aging under Workload Dependency using Machine Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.04134/) (2022)
- [An LSTM Feature Imitation Network for Hand Movement Recognition from sEMG Signals](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.19356/) (2024)
- [NeuroHD-RA: Neural-distilled Hyperdimensional Model with Rhythm Alignment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.14184/) (2025)
- [HD3C: Efficient Medical Data Classification for Edge Devices](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.14617/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

EMG-based gesture recognition shows promise for human-machine interaction. Systems are often afflicted by signal and electrode variability which degrades performance over time. We present an end-to-end system combating this variability using a large-area, high-density sensor array and a robust classification algorithm. EMG electrodes are fabricated on a flexible substrate and interfaced to a custom wireless device for 64-channel signal acquisition and streaming. We use brain-inspired high-dimensional (HD) computing for processing EMG features in one-shot learning. The HD algorithm is tolerant to noise and electrode misplacement and can quickly learn from few gestures without gradient descent or back-propagation. We achieve an average classification accuracy of 96.64% for five gestures, with only 7% degradation when training and testing across different days. Our system maintains this accuracy when trained with only three trials of gestures; it also demonstrates comparable accuracy with the state-of-the-art when trained with one trial.
