UTM

UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MALAYSIA

Faculty o f B iosciences
and M edical
E ngineering

FACULTY OF BIOSCIENCES AND MEDICAL ENGINEERING

FINAL EXAMINATION
SEMESTER I SESSION 2016/2017

COURSE CODE SKBB /SM BE 4023

COURSE NAME BIOMEDICAL SIGNAL PROCESSING

LECTURER ASSOC. PROF. DR. TAN TIAN SWEE

MR. ARIEF RUHULLAH A. HARRIS

PROGRAMME SKBB / SMBE

SECTION 01

TIME 3 HOURS

DATE 27th DECEMBER 2016

INSTRUCTIONS TO CANDIDATE ANSWER ALL QUESTIONS IN PART A

AND ANSWER TWO QUESTIONS ONLY
INPART B.

THIS EXAMINATION BOOKLET CONSISTS OF 11 PAGES INCLUDING THE FRONT COVER

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PART A (Answer all questions)
Q1. Processing of biological and medical information has long been a dynamic field of life
science.

[25 marks]

a) Point out at least 10 processes, procedures or operations that can be done

in biomedical signal processing.
Chapter 2 [5 marks]

b)
Chapter 2
[4 marks]
c) In your opinion, determine the reason why a low-pass filtering is performed before
c)
analog to digital conversion.
Chapter 6 pg2
[3 marks]
d) Describe in detail the processes involve in signal acquisition.
d) Explain the Shannon-Nyquist sampling theorem and determine on how to set the best
sampling rate in signal acquisition,
chapter 4 pg 47 [3 marks]
chapter 3 pg 38
e) Figure 1.1 shows the frequency ranges of Electrocardiography (ECG) measurements.
Explain in detail why the ranges are determined as in the figure.
[3 marks]

£Q
V
X_v
i
<1>

Figure Q1

f) Differentiate between Fourier series (FS), Fourier transform (FT), Discrete Time
Fourier Transform (DTFT) and Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT).

Chapter 4 pg 15 & 16 [4 marks]

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g) Auditory Brainstem Response (ABR) measurement utilizes the Event Related
Potentials (ERP) to obtain the required signal, Determine the function of ABR
measurement, the procedure to obtain the signal and the analysis of the signal.
[3 marks]
chapter pg 20
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Q2. Convolution and conversion between time and frequency domain are integral parts in
biomedical signal processing,
a) Given x[n] and h[n] as in Figure 2a, find y[n]=x[n]*h[n]. Show the step-by-step
solution.

h[n)
* 2
x\n[ 2'

-»—♦— — 1—
'III
-I 0 1 2 1 4 •I
I)

---- !“•--------
0 J 2 3 4 5
Figure Q2
[5 marks]

b) Given x[n] = ^u[n] - u[n - 1] and /i[n] = ^u[n + 1 ] + 2u[n - 1],

find y[n] = x[n] * h[n]. Show the step-by-step solution.

[5 marks]
c) Find the z-transform of the following equations, draw the pole-zero plot and the ROC:

i.x[n] = ( |) nu[n + 2] + (3) nu [ - n - 1]

[3 marks]
ii. x[n] = n ( i) nu[n - 2]
[3 marks]
iii. x[n] = (^)”cos(n6J0)u[n]

[3 marks]

d) Find the inverse z-transform of the following equations:

i. X[z] = ,\z\>-

[3 marks]

[3 marks]
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Appendix A

Sequence Transform ROC

%] 1 All z
u[n] , , _i r | z\ > 1
—w[—n — 1] i
i-* -i 1*1 < 1
5{n —m] z -m All 2 except 0 or oc
I
ontz[n] 1 \z\ > H
—anu[—n — 1] I
1—02“ 1 Nf < M
&Z~X
n a nu[n] (1- a s - 1)2 \z\ > \a\
az~x
~ n a nu[~n — 1] Xl-at-l)* \z\ < |a|
\a n Q < n < N — 1,
1~aNS~N \z\ > 0
1—&z~l
10 otherwise
cm{(jQn)u[n\ l-cm(uta)z~l
1—2 cos(ii/o)&—1-f-2“ 2 N > i
r n cos(won)u[n] 1—rcos(i*jo>«-1
1—£»*■eos(wo)i ~ ^+f*®s \z\ > r

Property Time Domain z-Domain ROC

Notation; x(") X(z) ROC: r2 < |z| < q
xi(n) X i(z) ROCi
X2(n) Xi(z) ROC2
Linearity: aixi(n) 4- 32*2(n) a iX i(z ) + 32X 2( 2) At least RO Q n ROC2
Time shifting: x(n —k) z ~ kX( z ) At least ROC, except
z = 0 (if k > 0)
and z — 00 (if k < 0)
z-Scating: anx(n) X( a~l z) la(r2 < N! < lalri
Time reversal x (- n ) X ( z - i) rt < \ z \ « £
Conjugation: x*(n) X*(z*} ROC
z-Differentiation: n x(n) _ 7 dXU)
d£ r2 < jzf <
Convolution: xt(n)*X2(n) X i(z )X 2(z) At least ROCiH R0C2
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PART B - ANSWER TWO (2) QUESTIONS ONLY [50 MARKS]

Q1. Figure 1 illustrates an electrocardiogram (ECG) signal. Answer the following question
based on the diagram. [25 marks]

a) Explain, how can the Heart Rate Variability (HRV) be calculated using an
ECG signal? [2 marks]

b) The ECG signal in Figure Q1 is then analyzed to obtain the Interbeat-Interval

IBI values which are tabulated in Table Ql. Calculate the following (Round to
2 d.p.):

i) Mean [2 marks]

ii) Variance [2 marks]

iii) Standard Deviation (SDNN) [2 marks]

iv) Assuming the age of Subject A is in the 30s, based on your calculated SDNN
in iii), what can you conclude? Use Appendix A to assist in your reasoning.
[2 marks]
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Table Ql: Interbeat-Interval IBI values

Interval Value Interval Value
1 938 11 1002
2 958 12 950
3 898 13 918
4 794 14 814
5 806 15 790
6 886 16 866
7 958 17 994
8 946 18 1010
9 1002 19 1030
10 1026 20 962

c) You are request to design a dedicated system to filter the ECG signal using Matlab, as
it is suspected to have 1.2 kHz noise interference from environment. The sampling
frequency of the of your equipment for ECG signal is 2kHz. You are advise to use 4th
order Butterworth low pass filter for your design. [5marks]

d) Propose an algorithm to detect QRS and define each process. (Draw flow of the
algorithm and label properly each of the blocks. [ 10 marks]
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Appendix A: Clinical Reference for SDNN

Age Mean SDNN SDNN Reference

50t '. High normal, ANS's

Os 55 regulating function and stress

coping ability is good

35-50: Low-Mid normal,

20s 47 ANS's regulating function and

coping ability is normal

20-35: Low, there's risk of

developing stress induced
30s 41
disease, weakened ANS
function

20[: Very Low, there's high

risk of having chronic stress
40s 37 induced disease related to
ANS dysfunction

40|: High normal

50s 32 20-30: Low-Mid normal

15-20: Low
60s 27
15j: Very low
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You have been assigned to analyze the collected EMG signal for a patient from Hospital
Sultanal Aminah. [25 marks]

a) What is the reason that make the electromyogram (EMG) waveform is

irregular? unsynchronized electrical activity of many muscle fibers. [3 marks]
• b. The RMS
represents b) Why does the root mean square EMG trace a better indicator of muscle
the square activity than the raw EMG trace?It smooths the peaks and make the time
It smooths the peaks and make the time course of changing
root of the course of changing activity clearer
activity clearer
average c) [3 marks]
power of the a solution to convert the signal to a single polarity frequency. [1 marks]
EMG signal Since an EMG signal is essentiallyRectification is thecurrent
an alternating translation of thesignal,
(AC) raw EMG signal to a signal
suggest
for a given Explain your answer in 2(c). with a single polarity, usually positive. [2 marks]
d)
period of
time. e) Figure 2 the raw EMG signal.
• because the
raw signal at
any time
may
represent the
electrical
activity of
thousands of
individual Figure 2: Raw EMG signal
fibers.
You are required to design an algorithm to detect onset of the EMG
signal. (Illustrate each of your process using graph to describe each of
the process.) [8 marks]

ii) Since the equipment also need to process the EMG signal in real time,
design your method to process EMG in real time.
2(c) The purpose of rectifying the signal is to ensure the signal does
not average to zero, due to the raw EMG signal having positive and
negative components. Two types of rectification are used: full-wave
and half-wave rectification.[19] Full-wave rectification adds the
EMG signal below the baseline to the signal above the baseline to
make a conditioned signal that is all positive. If the baseline is zero,
this is equivalent to taking the absolute value of the signal.[20][21]
This is the preferred method of rectification because it conserves all
of the signal energy for analysis. Half-wave rectification discards
the portion of the EMG signal that is below the baseline. In doing
so, the average of the data is no longer zero therefore it can be used
in statistical analyses.
[8 marks]
Onset Detection
Very good example of onset detection algorithm,
which can be used to explain the
problem, was presented in 1979 by Cavanagh and
Komi [3]. Simple method with set
threshold value required to trigger the EMG and
force state was called Comparator.
After certain value of signal was exceeded the
algorithm raised notice that onset has
already began. As default this value for EMG signal
was set to 30 mV because it was
considered to be the bottom border of voltage range
of electrical units produced by
human muscles [1]. Threshold for force produced by
muscle was set to 20 N. This value
was most probably determined empirically basing on
the observations. Authors have not
provided reader with the explanation of how this
value was set. It is reasonable to think
of it as a minimal force which cannot be caused by
inadequacy or deficiency of
measuring device. It would indicate the beginning of
muscle activity. Two onset
detections- concluded from EMG and force values
were later compared by authors in
order to calculate electro-mechanical delay (EMD)
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As a biomedical engineer, you have been assigned to design tools to process EEG
signal.
alpha

Figure Q3(a): EEG signal A

theta

Time (s)

Figure Q3 (b): EEG signal B

delta

gamma

Time (s)

Figure Q3 (d): EEG signal D

beta

Time (s)

Figure Q3(e): EEG signal E

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a) Firstly, you have to identify the frequency types of EEG signal as shown in figure
Q3(a) to Q3(e). [5 marks]

b) Answer the following questions.

i) Under what conditions do you seen figure 3(b) more clearly?

[2 marks]

ii) Based on your answer for Question 3b(i), what do you think would
happen to the wave activity if you performed mental math?
[2 marks]

iii) What evidence do you have to support your hypothesis in question

3b(ii). [2 marks]

iv) Identify which type of brain wave is most prevalent in table Q3.
______________________________ ____________ [4 marks]
Conditions Brain waves
1 eyes are closed and the patient is
relaxed
2 sleep stages three and four
3 patient is alert
4 sleeping adults
Table Q3: Condition for EEG signal

c) Identify 2 types of artifacts for the given EEG signal in figure Q3(f). Design an
algorithm to tackle the problems. [ 10 marks]

Figure Q3(f): Cycles of EEG signal