FPGA based real-time implementation of Bivariate Empirical Mode Decomposition

A field programmable gate array (FPGA)-based parallel architecture for the real-time and online implementation of the bivariate extension of the empirical mode decomposition (EMD) algorithm is presented. Multivariate extensions of EMD have attracted significant attention in recent years owing to their scope in applications involving multichannel and multidimensional data processing, e.g. biomedical engineering, condition monitoring, image fusion. However, these algorithms are computationally expensive due to the empirical and data-driven nature of these methods. That has hindered the utilisation of EMD, and particularly its bivariate and multivariate extensions, in real-time applications. The proposed parallel architecture is aimed at bridging this gap through real-time computation of the bivariate EMD algorithm. The crux of the architecture is the simultaneous computation of multiple signal projections, locating their local extrema and finally the calculation of their associated complex-valued envelopes for the estimation of local mean. The architecture is implemented on a Xilinx Kintex 7 FPGA and offers significant computational improvements over the existing software-based sequential implementations of bivariate EMD

A Strategy for Classification of “Vaginal vs. Cesarean Section” Delivery: Bivariate Empirical Mode Decomposition of Cardiotocographic Recordings

We propose objective and robust measures for the purpose of classification of “vaginal vs. cesarean section” delivery by investigating temporal dynamics and complex interactions between fetal heart rate (FHR) and maternal uterine contraction (UC) recordings from cardiotocographic (CTG) traces. Multivariate extension of empirical mode decomposition (EMD) yields intrinsic scales embedded in UC-FHR recordings while also retaining inter-channel (UC-FHR) coupling at multiple scales. The mode alignment property of EMD results in the matched signal decomposition, in terms of frequency content, which paves the way for the selection of robust and objective time-frequency features for the problem at hand. Specifically, instantaneous amplitude and instantaneous frequency of multivariate intrinsic mode functions are utilized to construct a class of features which capture nonlinear and nonstationary interactions from UC-FHR recordings. The proposed features are fed to a variety of modern machine learning classifiers (decision tree, support vector machine, AdaBoost) to delineate vaginal and cesarean dynamics. We evaluate the performance of different classifiers on a real world dataset by investigating the following classifying measures: sensitivity, specificity, area under the ROC curve (AUC) and mean squared error (MSE). It is observed that under the application of all proposed 40 features AdaBoost classifier provides the best accuracy of 91.8% sensitivity, 95.5% specificity, 98% AUC, and 5% MSE. To conclude, the utilization of all proposed time-frequency features as input to machine learning classifiers can benefit clinical obstetric practitioners through a robust and automatic approach for the classification of fetus dynamics