A novel low-complexity digital filter design for wearable ECG devices.

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Signal Processing

Background:

• Wearable and implantable electrocardiograph (ECG) devices are crucial for continuous health monitoring.
• ECG signals are susceptible to noise and artifacts, necessitating effective suppression for accurate analysis.
• Constraints in size, power, and cost are paramount for portable, battery-powered ECG devices.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce a novel, low-complexity noise suppression filter structure for wearable ECG devices.
• To present a reconfigurable Finite Impulse Response (FIR) filter designed for efficient ECG signal processing.
• To evaluate the hardware complexity and performance of the proposed filter against existing methods.

Main Methods:

• Development of a reconfigurable FIR filter structure based on an optimally-factored FIR filter method.
• Detailed presentation of the new filter's architecture and features.
• Comparative analysis of the hardware complexity of the proposed filter with state-of-the-art ECG filters.

Main Results:

• The proposed filter structure demonstrates significantly lower hardware complexity compared to existing state-of-the-art ECG filters.
• The design successfully addresses the need for low-complexity noise suppression in wearable health monitoring.
• The reconfigurable nature of the filter offers flexibility for different noise conditions.

Conclusions:

• The novel low-complexity FIR filter structure is a promising solution for noise reduction in wearable ECG devices.
• This design contributes to the development of more efficient and cost-effective portable health monitoring systems.
• The optimized filter structure meets the critical requirements of size, power, and cost for wearable technology.