An Integrated Approach Using Chaotic Map & Sample Value Difference Method for Electrocardiogram Steganography and...

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Signal Processing
• Cryptography

Background:

• Telemedicine relies on secure transmission of sensitive patient data.
• Electrocardiogram (ECG) signals are crucial for diagnosing cardiac conditions.
• Existing data hiding methods may compromise ECG diagnostic integrity or data security.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a novel, secure data hiding scheme for ECG signals.
• To ensure the wireless transmission of stego-ECG is robust for telemedicine.
• To evaluate the method's impact on ECG diagnostic features and data imperceptibility.

Main Methods:

• Confidential patient data is embedded into ECG signals using a chaotic map and sample value difference approach, creating stego-ECG.
• The Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) system is utilized for wireless transmission in a Rayleigh fading channel.
• Performance is evaluated using statistical measures (PRD, PSNR, KL-Div) and clinical metrics (WEDD, WWPRD) on the MIT-BIH arrhythmia database.

Main Results:

• The proposed embedding method does not alter the diagnostic features of the original ECG signal.
• High imperceptibility of hidden data is confirmed by statistical and clinical performance measures (Avg. PRD=0.26, PSNR=55.49, KL-Div=3.34×10⁻⁶, WEDD=0.02, WWPRD=0.10).
• The method demonstrates superior performance compared to existing techniques in simulated wireless transmission scenarios.

Conclusions:

• The developed data hiding scheme effectively embeds confidential data into ECG signals while preserving diagnostic quality.
• The proposed method offers a secure and reliable solution for wireless ECG data transmission in telemedicine applications.
• The technique shows significant advantages in terms of data security, imperceptibility, and preservation of ECG signal integrity.