Low Sampling-rate Approach for ECG Signals with Compressed Sensing Theory

Abstract

Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs) consist of tiny Biomedical Wireless Sensors (BWSs) and a Gate Way (GW) to connect to the external databases in the hospital and medical centres. The GW could connect the BWSs, to a range of wireless telecommunication networks. These wireless telecommunication networks could be either a mobile phone network, a standard telephone network, a dedicated medical centre or using public Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) nodes also known a Wi-Fi system. The electrocardiogram (ECG) signals are widely used in health care systems because they are non-invasive mechanisms to establish medical diagnosis of heart diseases. The current ECG systems suffer from important limitations: limited patient's mobility, limited energy, limited on wireless applications. The main drawback of current ECG systems is the location-specific nature of the .systems due to the use of fixed/wired applications. That is why; there is a critical need to improve the current ECG systems to cover security handling and to achieve extended patient's mobility. With this in mind, Compressed Sensing (CS) procedure and the collaboration of Block Sparse Bayesian Learning (BSBL) framework is used to provide a robust low sampling-rate approach for normal and abnormal ECG signals. Advanced WBANs based on our approach will be able to deliver healthcare not only to patients in hospital and medical centres; but also in their homes and workplaces thus offering cost saving, and improving the quality of life. Our simulation results based on two proposed algorithms illustrate 15% incensement of Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) and a good level of quality for the degree of incoherence between the random measurement and sparsity matrices.