EMS / NMES / FES Monthly Roundup — January 2026
A roundup of papers, patents, product launches, and company announcements published in January 2026 relating to EMS (Electrical Muscle Stimulation), NMES, and FES.
If you would like to start with the fundamentals, see The EMS Textbook. For the full archive including past months, see the EMS Industry News Index (annual hub).
How to read patent documents, and what to watch out for, is covered in more detail in Patents in EMS and Beauty Devices.
This month at a glance
- Papers and research: 3
- Patents: 3
- Product launches and company announcements: 0
Week 2 (January 5–11)
Papers and research
A wearable FES device with a movable electrode that tracks the motor point
Published: 2026-01-08 Journal: Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology
Summary: Starting from the observation that the motor point of the biceps brachii shifts across the skin as the elbow angle changes, this study proposes a wearable FES device in which a crank–slider mechanism moves the electrode itself to follow it. Seven healthy male participants compared the approach against time-shifted stimulation and joint-angle-switched stimulation. The work comes from the University of Electro-Communications.
Background: FES is widely used in rehabilitation after stroke or spinal cord injury, but it runs into a limit: muscles fatigue quickly. In voluntary movement, fatigue-resistant fibers are recruited first; under electrical stimulation, fast-twitch fibers respond preferentially and many motor units contract in synchrony, which raises the metabolic load. If the stimulation site could be kept aligned with the motor point, the same effect might be achieved at a smaller cost — that is the starting point. The complication is that the motor point is not a fixed spot. When a joint moves, the shape of the muscle changes and the optimal site on the skin drifts with it. In rehabilitation that involves movement, an electrode that is correctly placed at the moment of application can end up off target partway through. Hence the idea of moving the electrode.
Our take: The results showed a significant reduction in fatigue and improved comfort with motor point tracking. Brought closer to consumer products, it does seem plausible that some of what makes a device hard to use comes down to stimulation site rather than insufficient output. Evaluating it as a product, however, is a separate matter. A moving mechanism adds thickness and weight, it makes noise, and moving parts wear. Whether the design includes control that reduces output when the position goes off is part of what would need assessing — the mechanism has to be judged as a whole. The scale, seven healthy men, also places this at the stage of demonstrating that the approach is sound.
Read the original paper (Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology)
Published patent applications
Wearable game device and method thereof (CN121266104A)
Published: 2026-01-06 Applicant / assignee as listed: Boreal Technology Investments S.r.l.
Summary: A vest-type wearable worn while playing video games, which simulates sensations experienced by the character — impacts, bleeding — through electrical stimulation of the muscles. Electrodes are arranged in the garment, each held against the skin by a conductive gel layer, and stretchable conductive cabling (a core of enamelled copper wire wound in a zigzag) is fixed to the garment by embroidery and run to the control unit. The control unit carries multiple H-bridge circuits (five channels each) and generates trains of electrical pulses in units of "tracks," which parameterize positive and negative pulse width, rest time, intensity, repetition count and so on. Driving several electrodes simultaneously at different intensities allows a sequence such as "a bullet strikes the chest and exits through the back" to be staged.
Background:
About the applicant
Boreal Technology & Investment S.L. is a Spanish entity; the inventor is J. Fuertes Peña. The company has filed continuously in the wearable EMS field, and later filings under the same name include EP4394542A1 and WO2024153347A1 (a muscle stimulation device for use during exercise), filed 2022–2024.
Filing and prosecution status
Priority runs back not to a Spanish filing but to European application EP19382962.9 of November 2019, which is registered as EP3711829B1. From there the family was taken through the PCT into multiple jurisdictions. In EP, US and AU both the parent and the divisional are already granted; in JP and KR one of the two is granted and the other is pending; in CN both the parent (CN114728201A) and the divisional (CN121266104A, the present case) remain pending and ungranted. With nearly seven years elapsed since the priority date, China being the only jurisdiction where both cases are still pending indicates that examination there has run slower than elsewhere.
Direction of the claims
The claims settled in the present case (the CN121266104A divisional) are confined to the structure of the device. Specifically, six claims cover an electrode formed of a carbon-based conductive layer and an anhydrous self-adhesive gel layer; conductive cabling made of enamelled copper wire wound in a zigzag around an elastomer core that stretches up to 160%; the arrangement fixing that cabling to the garment by embroidery; a control unit carrying two H-bridges of five channels each; and a method of manufacture.
Separately from these, the specification also discloses in detail a signal processing and control method in which electrical pulses are parameterized in units called "tracks," and asynchronous pulse trains across multiple channels generate complex sensations (the staggered timing of an impact followed by bleeding, for instance). Given that the invention is structured along two lines — device claims and method claims — the split into parent and divisional applications in China and elsewhere may be the result of examiners separating those two distinct inventions (the China National Intellectual Property Administration applies unity-of-invention requirements relatively strictly and tends to prompt divisional filings where an application contains several inventions). That said, the actual claim wording of the Chinese parent and divisional has not been verified, so this point remains conjecture.
View the publication on Google Patents (CN121266104A)
Week 3 (January 12–18)
Papers and research
How different NMES techniques on the multifidus change sit-to-stand
Published: 2026-01-13 Journal: Disability and Rehabilitation
Summary: Twenty-two people with chronic nonspecific low back pain were allocated either to conventional NMES, delivered prone and without voluntary contraction (11 people), or to functional NMES, delivered during the act of rising from a chair (11 people). The study compared spine, pelvis and hip kinematics during sit-to-stand. Ten healthy individuals were also assessed for comparison. The work comes from Hacettepe University in Turkey.
Background: The multifidus is a deep muscle involved in stabilizing the spine, and it is known to function less well in people with chronic low back pain. But granted that electrical stimulation can produce a contraction, there is a choice about when to produce it. Stimulate the muscle itself in a resting posture, or time the stimulation to the actual movement, at the phase where it is needed? The latter aims at making the muscle usable within movement, which is a different objective from the former. This study put the two on the same measuring stick.
As background: stimulation of a deep muscle cannot be evaluated solely on whether the muscle contracted. In people with low back pain, the coordination among spine, pelvis and hip during sit-to-stand is itself altered, so it has to be examined as a movement pattern.
Our take: Even where the named body part is the same, the meaning of the stimulation changes with electrode placement, posture, and whether it is applied during movement or at rest. Product coverage needs to go a step beyond "usable around the lower back" and state which muscle is targeted and in what posture it is used.
Read the original paper (Disability and Rehabilitation)
Published patent applications
Methods and systems for transdermally stimulating a muscle (US20260014372A1)
Published: 2026-01-15 Applicant / assignee as listed: Zansors LLC
Summary:
A method and system for stimulating muscle transdermally. At least two electrodes on the skin are placed in contact near the target muscle, and a voltage of one polarity (positive) is applied for a set period, followed by the reverse polarity for a set period — the alternating reversal of polarity being the core of it. Working from a model that treats skin as an electrical capacitor, the specification explains that applying direct current in one direction continuously causes local polarization at the skin surface and consequent ion migration, which can contribute to pain and reduced effect. Reversing the polarity (with 10–300 VDC and frequencies on the order of 1–10 kHz given as examples) is said to suppress that polarization, so that adequate muscle contraction is obtained at lower voltage and lower output. Alongside a skin-adhered patch, the embodiments include a "bioshirt"-style wearable in which electrodes and controller are integrated into a garment using conductive embroidery thread; one concrete example given is alkaline-battery-powered functional electrical stimulation (FES) wear for neck and back pain, intended for aircraft and shipboard environments where lithium batteries are restricted.
Background:
About the applicant
Filed in the name of Zansors LLC (United States). The inventors are Tim White, Maurice Jackson, Ancha Baranova and Baabi Das.
Filing and prosecution status
Priority runs back to a US provisional filed 28 July 2022 (No. 63/392,916), followed by a PCT application on 26 September 2023 (PCT/US2023/033700). The present case (application number 18/994,696) is the US national phase entry from that, published 15 January 2026. It is currently pending and has not yet undergone substantive examination; entry into jurisdictions other than the United States cannot be confirmed from this page alone.
Direction of the claims
Independent claim 1 is a method claim rather than a device claim, placing at the center of the sought monopoly a relatively simple sequence: bring electrodes into contact with the skin, apply a voltage of a first polarity, then apply a second voltage of the reverse polarity. The dependent claims that could be checked (2–7) narrow the scope by parameters — voltage range (10–300 VDC), applied frequency (1–10 kHz), a rest interval between applications, and repetition count. Of the 22 claims in total, only the first seven were confirmed here; how far system claims, or claims to the wearable device (patch or garment-integrated), are covered in independent form requires checking the remainder separately.
View the publication on Google Patents (US20260014372A1)
Week 5 (January 26–31)
Papers and research
Mid-frequency EMS during immobilization, and deltoid atrophy
Published: 2026-01-31 Journal: Knee Surgery, Sports Traumatology, Arthroscopy
Summary: A comparison of 45 patients who received mid-frequency EMS to the deltoid during the period of brace immobilization following arthroscopic rotator cuff repair against 43 who did not. Change in deltoid volume was tracked by MRI, with strength ratios and functional scores assessed out to 12 months postoperatively. The design is a retrospective comparative study (Level III), not a randomized controlled trial.
Background:
After a rotator cuff repair, the shoulder is immobilized for several weeks up to about six, in order to protect the repair. The immobilization period itself, however, wastes the muscle. Deltoid atrophy has been reported not to fully recover even a year after surgery, and it is recognized as a factor bearing on functional outcome. If the patient cannot move the muscle, can electrical stimulation at least produce the contraction? — this is the classic reason electrical stimulation is used in rehabilitation. Mid-frequency is chosen because skin impedance varies with frequency: higher frequencies pass current more readily and provoke less discomfort.
That said, the label "mid-frequency" alone does not make a comparison possible. The carrier frequency, how modulation is applied, the actual rate of contractions produced, the output level — only with all of these does a condition become specified.
Our take: Reducing this to "mid-frequency, therefore it reaches deep" in product copy is risky. Check the electrode placement, waveform, intensity and session duration used in the study, and explain only the parts where household product specifications actually match.
Read the original paper (Knee Surgery, Sports Traumatology, Arthroscopy)
Published patent applications
Method and device for activation of acupoints using a tesla coil (RS20240787A1)
Published: 2026-01-30 Applicant / assignee as listed: Ivan Vasilic
Summary: An electric potential is induced in the body of a patient exposed to the alternating electromagnetic field emitted by a Tesla transformer (a Tesla coil operating at 60 kHz). An electrode placed on an acupuncture point is connected to electrical ground, and the weak current that arises as that induced potential drains to earth (on the order of 0.1–1 mA, described in the specification as corresponding to 3–50 V) stimulates the point. The specification distinguishes the invention from conventional electroacupuncture (TENS/EMS), which requires a circuit between two electrodes passing through the body, on the grounds that here no current flows through the body: the path is completed only between skin, electrode and ground. The apparatus comprises a Tesla transformer (primary, secondary and feedback coils plus a vacuum-tube control circuit), a variable resistor to adjust radiated intensity, and a circular silver electrode 4 mm in diameter; amplitude modulation in the audible band (1–60 Hz) is said to enhance the therapeutic effect. The indications set out in the specification and in claim 5 are wide-ranging: relief of trauma and pain, and also prevention and treatment of long COVID, depression, anxiety disorders, Alzheimer's disease, autism, and age-related cognitive decline.
Background:
About the applicant
Not a corporate filing but a joint application by two individuals, Ivan Vasilić and Suarez Edel Pons.
Filing and prosecution status
Filed 12 July 2024 as a standalone Serbian application; no PCT application or filings in other jurisdictions can be found. The twelve-month window for claiming Paris Convention priority (July 2025) has already passed, so no foreign application claiming priority from this filing can now be made. Rather than an application aimed at international protection, this may be intended for domestic rights only, or to secure a technical position.
Direction of the claims
There are just five claims. Claim 1 (apparatus) specifies only the combination of a Tesla transformer and a grounded electrode; claim 2 adds the coil configuration and the audio modulation circuit. Claims 3 and 4 (method) set out the steps of exposing the patient to the electromagnetic field and stimulating the acupoint by draining the induced potential through the grounded electrode. Claim 5 in particular is an effect claim covering prevention and treatment of a diverse set of conditions — cognitive impairment, age-related cognitive decline, depression, anxiety disorders, Alzheimer's disease, autism, long COVID. Tying that breadth of clinical effect to a single physical mechanism (acupoint stimulation by grounding current) is unusually wide, both as a scope of rights and as a matter of medical support.