Dual-tree complex wavelet transform for

motion artifact reduction of PPG signals

M. Raghuram1, K. Venu Madhav2, E. Hari Krishna3, Nagarjuna Reddy Komalla4, Kosaraju Sivani5, K. Ashoka Reddy6
1,2,6
Dept. of E&I Engg., Kakatiya Institute of Technology & Science, Warangal, Andhra Pradesh, India.
3
Dept. of ECE, KU CE&T, Kakatiya University, Warangal, Andhra Pradesh, India
4
Dept. of Anesthesiology, Kakatiya Medical College, Warangal, Andhra Pradesh, India
5
Dept. of ECE, Talla Padmavathi College of Engg., Kazipet, Andhra Pradesh, India
Corresponding author: kareddy.iitm@gmail.com

Abstract— Ever since the medical device pulse oximeter
was invented, reliable and accurate estimation of arterial
blood oxygen saturation (SpO2), based on the differential
absorption of red/infrared light by hemoglobin’s, has been
a challenging task. The Photoplethysmogram (PPG)
waveform, also known as the “pulse oximetry waveform”,
is well recognized for its use in pulse oximetry applications
for the estimation of SpO2 and can be obtained
noninvasively and continuously in a comfortable manner
using low cost & portable PPG sensors. Inaccuracy in the
estimation of SpO2 may prevail due to the motion artifacts
(MA) corruption in the detected PPG signals by the
intentional or unintentional movements of a patient. The
MA noise corruption is unavoidable while recording the
PPG’s because of a very small pulsatile component in PPG
(0.1% of total signal amplitude) and it can be reduced by
suitable processing of the PPG signals. In this paper, an
approach for motion artifact (MA) reduction of
photoplethysmographic (PPG) signals based on the
concept of dual-tree complex wavelet transform technique
is proposed. Experimental results revealed that DTCWT
processing of MA corrupted PPG’s outperformed the db10
wavelet processing for MA reduction of PPG signals and
can be referred as best suitable MA reduction technique
for pulse oximetry applications.
Index Terms- Pulse oximeter, PPG, MA noise, Dual- tree
complex wavelet transform (DTCWT), SpO2.
I. INTRODUCTION
The estimation of arterial blood oxygen saturation level and
pulse rate measurement is possible with noninvasive technique
of commercial pulse oximeter. It makes use of the pulsatile
portions of red and IR Photoplethysmographic signals for
reliable estimation of accurate SpO2. A PPG is a signal
obtained by illuminating a part of the body of interest with
monochromatic light source and detecting either the
transmitted or reflected light. The accuracy of pulse oximeter
data relies on transmission, absorption and dispersion nature
of light as it passes through hemoglobin [1]. While recording
PPG data, any intentional or unintentional movements of
patient attached with PPG sensors influence and reflect
deterioration and corruption in the recorded PPG data namely
motion artifacts (MA). This MA corruption situation results in
erroneous, unreliable and inaccurate estimation of SpO2
readings during those periods of cycles. The frequency
spectrum of MA corrupted PPG signal includes different
frequency components viz., the pulsatile (cardiac) portion
(0.5-4 Hz), respiratory activity (0.2-0.35 Hz) and MA noise
component (0.1 Hz or more) information.
Even today, for the researchers, reliable and accurate
estimation of SpO2, has been a challenging task. A clean
artifact-free PPG signals (with clearly separable DC and AC
parts) guarantees the performance of any pulse oximeter in
estimation of SpO2. Traditional filtering methods fail to
remove the MA noise as the frequency spectrum of this MA
noise overlaps with the frequency spectrum of desired signal
(artifact-free PPG). A typical procedure adopted by the
manufacturers of commercial pulse oximeters is to display an
average value of SpO2 readings whenever an MA noise
corruption comes into picture.
To address this issue in pulse oximetry applications,
several methods were proposed by researchers for MA
reduction of PPG signals. The most common technique
employed for the MA reduction is the weighted moving
average method [2] which have limitations. The in-band noise
due to MA corruption in PPG signals can be successfully
reduced using adaptive filtering methods. However, an extra
hardware like additional source-detector pair or accelerometer
are to be employed for generating a reference signal for
adaptive filtering methods [3]-[5]. Making use of the non-
stationary nature of the PPG signals, time-frequency methods
like smoothed pseudo Wigner-Ville distribution were also
proposed for MA reduction [6]. Recent signal processing
methods, based on cycle-by-cycle Fourier series (CFSA) [7]
and evaluation of wavelets [8] for MA reduction shown
prominent results in analysing the task assigned. Considering
the prominent results of wavelet denoising approach, authors
thought of applying a new wavelet technique based on dual-
tree complex wavelet transform (DTCWT) concept for MA
reduction of PPG signals.
Rest of the paper is organized as follows: In section II, the
procedural steps for MA reduction of corrupted PPG signal
using dual tree complex wavelet processing method with a
brief introduction of DTCWT and the inverse of DTCWT is
presented. Section III presents experimental results of the
proposed DTCWT processing method for MA reduction of
corrupted PPG signal in terms of simulations and statistical
calculations. Finally, Section IV presents the conclusion.
II. MOTION ARTIFACT REDUCTION
A. Brief Review of Dual-tree Complex Wavelet Transform:
In general, wavelet analysis provides an optimum solution
for most of the encountered problems of biomedical signals.
The wavelet transform (WT) based technique provides an
alternative approach to the existing Short-Time Fourier
Transform (STFT) or Gabor transform. Specifically, the dual-
tree complex wavelet transform (DTCWT) proposed by
Kingsbury [9] is among the most efficient methods for

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extracting required information from the corrupted data, and components of the signal the inverse of each of the two real
has found application in a wide range of disciplines. Several DWTs are to be used. Then the final output is obtained by
efforts are been made by researchers to implement this novel averaging the above two real signals. These two real signals
technique for artifact reduction of biomedical signals. are then averaged to obtain the final output. The original
The distinguished feature of DTCWT is that two discrete signal x(n) can be recovered from either of the real or
wavelet transform (DWT) trees are performed in parallel. In imaginary components alone.
general, the DTCWT employs two real DWT’s; the first DWT
B. MA Reduction using DTCWT Processing:
can be referred as real component, where as the second one
can be referred as the imaginary component of the transform The DTCWT method proposed for motion artifact
to be performed. The process of implementing DTCWT for reduction of PPG can be implemented as block processing
any signal considered and then the signal reconstruction can similar to that of implemented for basic wavelet processing
be clearly described using the block processing of analysis and defined for MA reduction of PPG signals [8]; the proposed
synthesis filter banks. Implementation of DTCWT using block processing for the objective considered here can be
analysis filter bank is illustrated in the Fig. 1 below. The two explained using the block diagram represented in the Fig. 2
real wavelet transforms defined here uses the two different below:
sets of filters satisfying the perfect reconstruction conditions.
The two sets of filter banks which were jointly designed MA corrupted Dual tree Inverse
T hresholdi MA reduced
PPG Discrete Dual tree
usually prove that the overall transform is approximately ng PPG
CWT Discrete CWT
analytic in nature.

h O (n) 2 Figure 2. DTCWT Block processing for motion artifact reduction of PPG
h O (n) 2
The sequence of steps employed for implementing
h1 (n) 2 proposed DTCWT processing for MA reduction of PPG
h1 (n) 2 signals are given below:
Step1: Signal decomposition: Compute the wavelet
x h O (n) 2 decomposition process for the complex component of the MA
h O (n) 2 corrupted PPG signal s at level N; decompose the real and
imaginary components of the considered PPG signal into
h1 (n) 2 approximate and detailed coefficients.
h1 (n) 2
Step2: Thresholding detail coefficients: For each level from
Figure 1. Analysis filter bank (signal decomposition) for dual tree
1 to N, select an appropriate thresholding to the detail
complex wavelet transform (DTCWT) coefficients obtained after decomposition process.
In the shown block diagram of analysis filter bank, the Step3: Signal reconstruction: Perform the inverse dual-tree
variables h0 (n), h1 (n) of level “1” in the upper filter bank complex wavelet transform for reconstructing the desired
denote the low-pass/high-pass filter pair of real tree signal i.e., MA reduced PPG using the original approximation
coefficients of the signal to be decomposed x(n). Whereas, coefficients of level N and the modified detail coefficients of
similarly noted variables h0 (n), h1 (n) of level “1” in the lower levels from 1 to N.
filter bank denote the low-pass/high-pass filter pair of
imaginary tree coefficients. Similarly, at different levels from III. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
1 to N of the wavelet decomposition process, the variable To record the PPG data, the necessary hardware for
notation can be defined for both the real and imaginary sensing, software for acquiring and processing the PPG signals
components. Here, the two real wavelet components have been developed. A clip-on-type plastic PPG sensor with
associated with each of the transforms will be denoted as wR (t) red and IR light-emitting diodes (LEDs) on one side and a
and wI (t). In addition to the defined satisfactory conditions for photodiode on the other side was used. The sensor head is
the perfect reconstruction of desired signal, both the filters designed such that the clip snugly fits on the finger of a
were designed so that the complex wavelet w(t) = wR (t) +j*wI subject. While experimentation, in order to obtain the separate
(t); is approximately analytic in nature. Equivalently, the RED and IR PPG signals, the drives to both LEDs were
filters are designed such that wI (t) is approximately the Hilbert arranged with time slicing fashion and the output from the
transform pair of wR (t). Here an interesting point to be detector is suitably demultilplexed. Analog red and IR PPG
observed is that the filters designed are real in nature and there signals are then acquired with a 16-bit resolution data
is no complex arithmetic requirement while implementing the acquisition card NI DAQPad-6015 manufactured by National
DTCWT. Instruments. The PPG data is recorded with a sampling rate of
For signal reconstruction, the inverse of the dual tree 200 Hz and the sample processing was accomplished under
complex wavelet transform (IDTCWT) is to be computed the LabVIEW environment. The data was recorded after
utilizing the synthesis filter bank similar in construction to that obtaining “informed consent” from the volunteers within the
of analysis filter bank shown in the above block diagram. To age group of 22–35 by performing an experimentation.
compute the inverse of DTCWT, the real and the imaginary To evaluate the performance of the proposed DTCWT
components are to be inverted. In order to obtain the real method for MA reduction of PPG, frequently encountered

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artifacts (horizontal, vertical & bending motions of finger) (a)
during post-operative recovery and intensive care were created
intentionally during the PPG data recording process from

Amplitude (V)
volunteers. A typical PPG signal corrupted with vertical
1
motion of finger, is depicted in Fig. 3, was processed by the (b)

proposed DTCWT method. The computed spectra after

processing with proposed method, shown in Fig. 4, clearly
indicate the suppression of unwanted frequency components -1
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
corresponding to the motion artifacts (MA). Time (S)

10

Amplitude (V)
(a)
IR PPG
2
Amplitude (V)

-2 (b)

0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Time (S)
RED PPG
Figure 6. Red (in top trace) and IR (in bottom trace) PPG with “Vertical
motion of finger”: (a) MA corrupted PPG (b) MA recovered PPG using
-10
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 DTCWT technique
Time (S)
Figure 3. MA corrupted PPG data recorded from a volunteer (a)

1
(a)
Amplitude (V)

0.5 1
(b)
Magnitude

0 0
0 2 4 6 8 10
1
(b) -1
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Time (S)
0.5

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 (a)
Frequency (Hz)
Amplitude (V)

Figure 4. Spectra of MA corrupted PPG in (a) and MA recovered PPG in (b)

(b)
(a)
Amplitude (V)

-4
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Time (S)
2
Figure 7. Red (in top trace) and IR (in bottom trace) PPG with
0 “Bending motion of finger”: (a) MA corrupted PPG (b) MA recovered PPG
using DTCWT technique
-2 (b)

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
The recovered portions of MA corrupted PPGs of red and
Time (S) IR signals for frequently encountered artifacts are shown in
Fig. 5 to Fig. 7. From the depicted figures, a clear observation
(a)
of MA noise reduction without any loss of information
regarding the essential morphological features of the PPG is
identified. However, visual inspection of filtered output of the
Amplitude (V)

5
presented method did not reveal much information about the
(b) efficacy of the proposed method. In order to evaluate the
0
performance of the proposed DTCWT method for PPG
signals, comparative analysis is performed with already
-5
experimented WT method (previous work of authors) [8]. The
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 statistical analysis is carried out in terms of mean + standard
Time (S)
deviation of the peak-to-peak values of the restored PPG
Figure 5. Red (in top trace) and IR (in bottom trace) PPG with cycles obtained after applying both the methods; existing
“Horizontal motion of finger”: (a) MA corrupted PPG (b) MA recovered PPG Daubeschies wavelet (db10) method [8] and the proposed
using DTCWT technique

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dual-tree complex wavelet transform (DTCWT) method. Both IV. CONCLUSION
the methods are implemented under MATLAB environment
on recorded MA corrupted PPG signal data and the results Several efforts are been made by researchers to implement
obtained are tabulated in Table I. The peak-to-peak values of various novel techniques for artifact reduction in biomedical
MA recovered PPG cycles using proposed DTCWT technique signals. Specifically, the dual-tree complex wavelet transform
are very close to the clean sections of the PPG than db10 (DTCWT) is a new technique which can be applied for artifact
wavelet processing method. reduction of physiological signals and it is one of the most
efficient methods for extracting required information from the
TABLE I. EFFECTIVENESS OF PROPOSED METHOD IN RESTORING corrupted data. This paper presents an approach for motion
PEAK-TO-PEAK VALUES OF PPG
artifact (MA) reduction of photoplethysmographic (PPG)
Vertical Horizontal Bending
PPG
motion motion motion
signals based on the concept of dual-tree complex wavelet
transform technique. Experimental results revealed that
Clean section of DTCWT processing of MA corrupted PPG’s outperformed the
0.371 ± 0.025 0.428 ± 0.045 0.357 ± 0.022
PPG
basic db10 wavelet processing for MA reduction. The efficacy
Corrupted portion of of proposed method in reducing MA proves its best suitability
0.426 ± 0.087 0.514 ± 0.107 0.459 ± 0.067
the same PPG
for pulse oximetry applications resulting in reliable and
PPG recovered by accurate estimation of SpO2.
0.388 ± 0.048 0.443 ± 0.059 0.364 ± 0.131
db10 wavelet
PPG recovered by
0.378 ± 0.038 0.437 ± 0.050 0.361 ± 0.126
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By virtue of its excellent performance, the DTCWT
technique resulted in better recovery of the peak-to-peak
values of restored PPG cycles. As the computation of SpO2
depends on the peak-to-peak values of the PPG cycles, a
reliable SpO2 estimation is guaranteed as the proposed
DTCWT estimated readings are very close to that of clean
sections of PPG. This is clearly evident from the data
presented in Table II, where in R and SpO2 are estimated from
the MA recovered PPGs using DTCWT and db10 wavelet
processing.

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