Modeling of electrocardiogram signals using predefined signature and envelope vector sets

A novel method is proposed to model ECG signals by means of "predefined signature and envelope vector sets (PSEVS)." On a frame basis, an ECG signal is reconstructed by multiplying three model parameters, namely, predefined signature vector (PSV)(R)," "predefined envelope vector (PEV)(K)," and frame-scaling coefficient (FSC). All the PSVs and PEVs are labeled and stored in their respective sets to describe the signal in the reconstruction process. In this case, an ECG signal frame is modeled by means of the members of these sets labeled with indices R and K and the frame-scaling coefficient, in the least mean square sense. The proposed method is assessed through the use of percentage root-mean-square difference (PRD) and visual inspection measures. Assessment results reveal that the proposed method provides significant data compression ratio (CR) with low-level PRD values while preserving diagnostic information. This fact significantly reduces the bandwidth of communication in telediagnosis operations. Copyright (c) 2007 Hakan Gurkan et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Publisher's Versio

Compression of ECG signals using variable-length classified vector sets and wavelet transforms

In this article, an improved and more efficient algorithm for the compression of the electrocardiogram (ECG) signals is presented, which combines the processes of modeling ECG signal by variable-length classified signature and envelope vector sets (VL-CSEVS), and residual error coding via wavelet transform. In particular, we form the VL-CSEVS derived from the ECG signals, which exploits the relationship between energy variation and clinical information. The VL-CSEVS are unique patterns generated from many of thousands of ECG segments of two different lengths obtained by the energy based segmentation method, then they are presented to both the transmitter and the receiver used in our proposed compression system. The proposed algorithm is tested on the MIT-BIH Arrhythmia Database and MIT-BIH Compression Test Database and its performance is evaluated by using some evaluation metrics such as the percentage root-mean-square difference (PRD), modified PRD (MPRD), maximum error, and clinical evaluation. Our experimental results imply that our proposed algorithm achieves high compression ratios with low level reconstruction error while preserving the diagnostic information in the reconstructed ECG signal, which has been supported by the clinical tests that we have carried out.ISIK University [06B302]The author would like to special thank Prof. Siddik Yarman who is Board of Trustees Chairman of the ISIK University and Umit Guz, Assistant Professor at the ISIK University for their valuable contributions and continuous interest in this article. The author also would like to thank Prof. Osman Akdemir who is a cardiologist in the Department of Cardiology at the T. C. Maltepe University and Dr. Ruken Bengi Bakal who is a cardiologist in the Department of Cardiology at the Kartal Kosuyolu Yuksek Ihtisas Education and Research Hospital for their valuable clinical contributions and suggestions and the reviewers for their constructive comments which improved the technical quality and presentation of the article. The present work was supported by the Scientific Research Fund of ISIK University, Project number 06B302.Publisher's Versio

Effective high compression of ECG signals at low level distortion

An effective method for compression of ECG signals, which falls within the transform lossy compression category, is proposed. The transformation is realized by a fast wavelet transform. The effectiveness of the approach, in relation to the simplicity and speed of its implementation, is a consequence of the efficient storage of the outputs of the algorithm which is realized in compressed Hierarchical Data Format. The compression performance is tested on the MIT-BIH Arrhythmia database producing compression results which largely improve upon recently reported benchmarks on the same database. For a distortion corresponding to a percentage root-mean-square difference (PRD) of 0.53, in mean value, the achieved average compression ratio is 23.17 with quality score of 43.93. For a mean value of PRD up to 1.71 the compression ratio increases up to 62.5. The compression of a 30 min record is realized in an average time of 0.14 s. The insignificant delay for the compression process, together with the high compression ratio achieved at low level distortion and the negligible time for the signal recovery, uphold the suitability of the technique for supporting distant clinical health care

Sensing and Compression Techniques for Environmental and Human Sensing Applications

In this doctoral thesis, we devise and evaluate a variety of lossy compression schemes for Internet of Things (IoT) devices such as those utilized in environmental wireless sensor networks (WSNs) and Body Sensor Networks (BSNs). We are especially concerned with the efficient acquisition of the data sensed by these systems and to this end we advocate the use of joint (lossy) compression and transmission techniques. Environmental WSNs are considered first. For these, we present an original compressive sensing (CS) approach for the spatio-temporal compression of data. In detail, we consider temporal compression schemes based on linear approximations as well as Fourier transforms, whereas spatial and/or temporal dynamics are exploited through compression algorithms based on distributed source coding (DSC) and several algorithms based on compressive sensing (CS). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work presenting a systematic performance evaluation of these (different) lossy compression approaches. The selected algorithms are framed within the same system model, and a comparative performance assessment is carried out, evaluating their energy consumption vs the attainable compression ratio. Hence, as a further main contribution of this thesis, we design and validate a novel CS-based compression scheme, termed covariogram-based compressive sensing (CB-CS), which combines a new sampling mechanism along with an original covariogram-based approach for the online estimation of the covariance structure of the signal. As a second main research topic, we focus on modern wearable IoT devices which enable the monitoring of vital parameters such as heart or respiratory rates (RESP), electrocardiography (ECG), and photo-plethysmographic (PPG) signals within e-health applications. These devices are battery operated and communicate the vital signs they gather through a wireless communication interface. A common issue of this technology is that signal transmission is often power-demanding and this poses serious limitations to the continuous monitoring of biometric signals. To ameliorate this, we advocate the use of lossy signal compression at the source: this considerably reduces the size of the data that has to be sent to the acquisition point by, in turn, boosting the battery life of the wearables and allowing for fine-grained and long-term monitoring. Considering one dimensional biosignals such as ECG, RESP and PPG, which are often available from commercial wearable devices, we first provide a throughout review of existing compression algorithms. Hence, we present novel approaches based on online dictionaries, elucidating their operating principles and providing a quantitative assessment of compression, reconstruction and energy consumption performance of all schemes. As part of this first investigation, dictionaries are built using a suboptimal but lightweight, online and best effort algorithm. Surprisingly, the obtained compression scheme is found to be very effective both in terms of compression efficiencies and reconstruction accuracy at the receiver. This approach is however not yet amenable to its practical implementation as its memory usage is rather high. Also, our systematic performance assessment reveals that the most efficient compression algorithms allow reductions in the signal size of up to 100 times, which entail similar reductions in the energy demand, by still keeping the reconstruction error within 4 % of the peak-to-peak signal amplitude. Based on what we have learned from this first comparison, we finally propose a new subject-specific compression technique called SURF Subject-adpative Unsupervised ecg compressor for weaRable Fitness monitors. In SURF, dictionaries are learned and maintained using suitable neural network structures. Specifically, learning is achieve through the use of neural maps such as self organizing maps and growing neural gas networks, in a totally unsupervised manner and adapting the dictionaries to the signal statistics of the wearer. As our results show, SURF: i) reaches high compression efficiencies (reduction in the signal size of up to 96 times), ii) allows for reconstruction errors well below 4 % (peak-to-peak RMSE, errors of 2 % are generally achievable), iii) gracefully adapts to changing signal statistics due to switching to a new subject or changing their activity, iv) has low memory requirements (lower than 50 kbytes) and v) allows for further reduction in the total energy consumption (processing plus transmission). These facts makes SURF a very promising algorithm, delivering the best performance among all the solutions proposed so far

Algorithms for Compression of Electrocardiogram Signals

The study is dedicated to modern methods and algorithms for compression of electrocardiogram (ECG) signals. In its original part, two lossy compression algorithms based on a combination of linear transforms are proposed. These algorithms are with relatively low computational complexity, making them applicable for implementation in low power designs such as mobile devices or embedded systems. Since the algorithms do not provide perfect signal reconstruction, they would find application in ECG monitoring systems rather than those intended for precision medical diagnosis. This monograph consists of abstract, preface, five chapters and conclusion. The chapters are as follows: Chapter 1 — Introduction to ECG; Chapter 2 — Overview of the existing methods and algorithms for ECG compression; Chapter 3 — ECG compression algorithm, based on a combination of linear transforms; Chapter 4 — Improvement of the developed algorithm for ECG compression; Chapter 5 — Experimental investigations. Този труд е посветен на съвременните методи и алгоритми за компресия на електрокардиографски (ЕКГ) сигнали. В оригиналната му част са предложени два алгоритъма за компресия със загуби, които са базирани на комбинация от линейни преобразувания. Тези алгоритми се характеризират със сравнително невисока изчислителна сложност, което дава възможност да бъдат реализирани в устройства с ниска консумация на енергия, като например мобилни устройства или вградени системи. Тъй като алгоритмите не позволяват перфектно възстановяване на сигнала, те биха намерили приложение по-скоро в системите за ЕКГ мониторинг, отколкото в тези, предназначени за прецизна медицинска диагностика. Монографията съдържа резюме, предговор, пет глави и заключение. Главите са както следва: Глава 1 — Въведение в електрокардиографията; Глава 2 — Обзор на съществуващите методи и алгоритми за компресия на ЕКГ сигнали; Глава 3 — Алгоритъм за компресия на ЕКГ сигнали, базиран на комбинация от линейни преобразувания; Глава 4 — Усъвършенстване на разработения алгоритъм за компресия на ЕКГ сигнали; Глава 5 — Експериментални изследвания

Wearable Wireless Devices

No abstract available