PACKET ANALYZER OF ONLINE ECG SIGNALS

Abstract

This paper presents the implementation of online acquisition software for electrocardiogram (ECG) signals. This program is based on the Python language and it allows the adaptation of a commercial offline signal acquisition board into an online signal acquisition board. Here, the concept of online acquisition is applied when the signal can be analyzed in short time intervals, such as a few seconds. The developed system is divided into two parts: the acquisition module; and the graphical user interface (GUI). The acquisition module is responsible for recording and processing the raw signal, making it available to the graphics module. The developed structure allows the algorithm to be used in more complex applications, abstracting the acquisition logic. Furthermore, the acquisition module has acquisition settings, defined by the user when initializing the module. This work presents a simple example of an application using the module. In this case, the system stores the information from the acquisition module and constantly plots it on the screen. The program also integrates settings available by code, using command-line arguments. Therefore, the developed system presents itself as a powerful tool for online ECG signal acquisition, allowing the use of the board in human-machine interfaces.