ECG Signal Processing using Offline-Wavelet

Transform Method based on ECG-IoT Device

M. Faizal Amri, Muhammad I. Rizqyawan, and Arjon Turnip
Technical Implementation Unit for Instrumentation
Development
Indonesian Institute of Sciences, Bandung, Indonesia
E-mails: mfai001@lipi.go.id

Abstract— In this paper, a wireless system for human heart
monitoring/Electrocardiograph (ECG) based on Android
Smartphones was proposed. The Cardiac signals was recorded
from three electrodes and attached to a subject’s body that
connected to the ECG amplifier module. In this module, the
signals were pre-prosessed and sending the result to the
smartphone via Bluetooth. Next step, the result of signals stored
in the database (computer server) and SD card from
smartphones. Furthermore, the signals that stored were
synchronized with Cloud Server through the Internet using the
Rest API as Final Data. The final data signal was displayed on
the web to be used by users in real time. Its can be used and
processed by algorithms of signal processing for further analysis
using Wavelet Transform (WT). Finally, this system well used
for application monitoring heart signals accurately .
Keywords— ECG; Android; Signal Processing; IoT; Wavelet
Transform;
I. INTRODUCTION
The development of communication technologies has
changed the way people in conducting their lives. One of the
advances in the development of communications technologies
is a mobile phone with a variety of technologies that
embedded in it. Particularly, mobile phones with Android OS
and iOS operating system have developed impressively, both
in hardware and software. Android OS and iOS have changed
mobile phones become sophisticated to be developed and
utilized for different applications. One of them is the
utilization of smartphones with wireless communication
technologies in the health sector. The application has helped
the process of monitoring the patients condition by the doctors
real time and wirelessly [1]. The simplicity of supervising
condition of the patients will enhance the effectiveness and
efficiency in the health sector. The doctors do not need to
meet the patients to monitoring the condition. It has done
remotely, wirelessly. For the experiment, we used phones with
androidOS as the device for monitoring that able to
synchronize with the server/cloud using the internet. The
monitoring patient’s system will be more enhanced with this
facility [2, 3] compared to the ordinary systems.
In this paper, the system for recording and monitoring
ECG signals using the internet based mobile phone and the
cloud system are proposed. ECG signals processing based on
offline system also conducted. The system consists of an ECG
recording module attached to the body of the observed
subjects. This module can record, pre-processing the signals
and can transmit the signals wirelessly via Bluetooth with
other devices (in this experiment using a mobile phone based
Android OS). The output signal from the module that
transmitted to the phone, monitored real time, and saved in
database through cloud server via internet, simultaneously.
Moreover, the recorded ECG signals can be processed
offline with signal processing algorithms for deeper analysis.
The acquired RAW signals need some process for canceling
the noises that contain in the signals. For the ECG signal
processing, using wavelet transform (WT) is one of the
methods for signal processing. Canceling the noises from the
ECG signal in the time and frequency domain simultaneously
are some advantages using WT algorithm.
II. METHOD
A. ECG recording
The ECG signals are widely used to analyze the
abnormalities of the heart. The characters of ECGs are simple,
non-invasive and relatively inexpensive using by the
researchers. The ECGs features extremely beneficial for health
experiments. ECG signal recording is required to obtain
signals which are able to be analyzed and exploited.
Meanwhile, to get the ECG signal which able to analyze, the
signals need to be processed to eliminate the noises caused by
outside factors, such as the movement of the subject when the
signal recording process performed.
The ECG signal has a distinctive waveform that is shown
in Fig. 1. One period of ECG waveform indicated one cycle
distribution of blood transfer from heart to the arteries. Thus,
one cycle of ECG waveform consists of PQRST waves [4, 5].
Fig. 1. Normal ECG Wave.

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 The PQRST waves have some distinctive character for
detecting abnormalities on the cardiac system. On a normal
ECG waveform, interval of PQRST wave has described: P-R
interval = 0.12 - 0.20 Sec, QRS width = 0.08 - 0.12 Sec, Q-T
interval 0.35 - 0.43 Sec, P wave interval = 0.11 Sec. The
amplitude of normal ECG wavefrom represents : P wave :
0.25 mV, R wave : 1.60mV, Q wave : 25% or R wave, T wave
: 0.1 -0.5 mV [6], 7].
ECG recording has done with 3 Electrodes from ECG
module attached at the subject bodies. The placement of
electrodes is shown at Fig. 2.
Fig. 2. 2 Methods Placement of the Electrodes.
The electrodes of ECG consist of +, -, and reference
electrodes. The electrode with + amount is installed on the
patient’s arm on the right side, the - electrode installed on the
left arm and the last one, reference electrode piece attached at
the hip of the patient. The real placement of the electrodes are
shown in Fig. 3. Therefore, for the installation of the ECG
module, electrodes must be attached on the surface of the
human body/skin. This condition will lead to the obtained
signals have noises that derived from the muscles of the body
or the patients skin. Consequently, We required signal
processings for the recorded RAW signals to obtain the
necessary ECG signal for further analysis.
Fig. 3. The placement of the Electrodes.
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The recording experimental data are obtained from several
subjects with the age 25 ± 3 years old. The subjects didn’t
have any illness which are related to cardiac system. For
further experiment, a research of medical devices that
involving human subjects, requires a system with clinical
examination. Rather than using subjects with normal
condition, the patients with the actual illness are needed. The
Fig. 4 displayed experiment with all subjects.
Fig. 4. Data Acquistion.
B. Internet of Things (IoT)
The acquisition system for ECG monitoring is conducting
on online topography based on Internet of Thing (IoT) through
smartphone. The source of ECG signals from the module,
wirelessly transported the data via Bluetooth to mobile
phones. The data that have been processed on the phone, then
transferred to the cloud or server through the Internet. Fig. 5
shown the block diagram of the system.
Fig. 5. block diagram of the system.
C. Wavelet Transform (WT)
In this research, discrete wavelet transform (DWT) is used
as denoising method for canceling noises from the recorded
ECG signal [8–10]. The ECG signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is
low and not stationary is the reason why the wavelet
transform has been selected as processing algorithm .
The work of DWT system has basic principle for
separating the signal. The DWT uses multi filter banks and
special wavelet filters for the analysis and reconstruction of
signals from wavelet domain. This method provides a compact
representation of the signal in time and frequency that was
calculated efficiently. The method calculates the wavelet
coefficients at discrete intervals of time and scale instead of at
all scales.
2.3.1. Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT)
The signals processing for ECG must have good
capabilities for signal compression and denoising of the RAW
signal. This function capable to do using wavelet transform
(DWT). The WT features have good ability to time-frequency
analysis of signal processing [11 – 13].
The Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) using filters as
filter banks for signal computationanl-analysis. With this
structure, signal processing will be done with a brief
processing time and multi range resolution signal. Filter
Banks composed by Low Pass Filter (LPF) and High Pass
Filter (HPF) with the cut-off frequency are half of processed
signals [14 – 16]. The wavelet filter banks have functioned a
scaling process for a signal. Its combine filtering and
downsampling before reconstruct the output signals. The
construction equation is shown as:
Fig. 6. Mobile Phone Display.
The Fig. 7 shown the RAW signal of the subject 1 in
normal circumstances. The signals still contain noises, so that
the signal processing is needed for canceling the noises. Even
with the noises attached, the RAW data has displayed ECG
form. Therefore, the processing methods must be have good
computing time and great ability.
Fig. 7. RAW signal.
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∞
cAi [ k ] = ¦ (cDi +1[ k ] g[− n + 2k ] + cAi +1[k ]h[− n + 2k ]), (1)
−∞
with cAi are approximation coefficients and cDi are the
coefficients detail.
III. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
In this research, data collection was performed on several
subjects, aged around 25 ± 3 years. The subjects have normal
condition, without any cardiac diseases. Data recording is
done in two circumstances, the normal state and while doing
less exercise, in this case, the subjects did jog using the
treadmill.
Fig. 6 shown ECG data recording process real time
through mobile phone. The format data *json was used for
storing data to the phone. Over the internet, ECG data sent by
the system and affordable to be accessed through the website
wherever located via IoT technology.
From the presence of RAW signal, the trend of the
recorded data are still above baseline. The baseline correction
is necessary to process the shortcomings. Baseline of RAW
signal has been corrected with the use detrend process. The
Fig. 8 has been shown the RAW signal that has undergone
detrending.
 Detrending RAW Data Subject 1: Normal
1.5

Amplitude (mV)
0.75

0.75

1.5

2.25
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5

time (s)
Fig. 8. Detrending RAW Signal.

The resulted signal, after the baseline correction, got
another processing due the artifacts interference. In order to
get a clean ECG signal, noise removal process is conducted.
The denoising step must provide process that can eliminate
unnecessary signal with the best output. The process that does
not eliminate the critical data of the signal and noise were just
dumped there. In this research, we concluded comparation
between signal denoising process using various WT methods.
Among the other methods, meyer (dmey), coiflet, and symlet
wavelet are used in the experiment.
The Fig. 9 demonstrated the result of symlet wavelet order
5 on the ECG data. The filtered ecg wave using symlet
wavelet for relieve the noises resulted the PQRS wave crest of
the wave from the cardiac. The duration data (7 seconds) when
captured the data subject with normal activity displayed about
10 beats of the heart.

Fig. 9. Result of Symlet Wavelet .

From the displayed data in the Fig. 10, can be obtained showed any noises or ripples on the wave. The symlet result is
comparison the results of proposed wavelets. The processing the best method for offline signal processing compared to the
result used symlet wavelet filter has the best denoising output others.
than others. From the result, the processed signal is not

Fig. 10. Comparison Result of Wavelets.

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 Comparison between a subject when no activity and light
activity (running light) shown in the Fig. 11 . We can see the
beats at normal activity is less than when did light exercise.
The data retrieval for both analysis are 10 seconds. For more
complete results has shown in table 1. The table displayed
amount beats of heart on normal (speed : 0m/s) and light
excercises state in one minute period. The result of
experiments was compared between the calculation by visual
result and algoritm result, we reached a result of computation
was 98% accuration.

Fig. 11. Comparison Normal Activity and Light excercise ECGS.

[3] H. Xia, I. Asif, and X. Zhao, “Cloud-ECG for real

TABLE I. BEAT PER MINUTES (BPM) time ECG monitoring and analysis,” Comput. Methods
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Subject 2013.
0 1.5 3 4.5 6 [4] P. B. Sakhare, “An Approach for ECG Beats
1 83 99 110 128 136 Classification using Adaptive Neuro Fuzzy Inference
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