An efficient ECG data compression technique based on predefined signature and envelope vector banks

In this paper, a new method to compress electrocardiogram (ECG) signals by means of "predefined signature and envelope vector banks-PSEVB" is presented. In this work, on a frame basis, any ECG signal is modeled by multiplying three parameters called the predefined signature vector, predefined envelope vector, and frame-scaling coefficient. It has been demonstrated that the predefined signature vectors and predefined envelope vectors constitute a "PSEVB" to describe any measured ECG signal. In this case, the ECG signal for each frame is described in terms of the two indices "R" and "K" of PSEVB and the frame-scaling coefficient. The new compression method achieves good compression ratios with low level reconstruction error while preserving diagnostic information in the reconstructed ECG signal. Furthermore, once PSEVB are stored on each communication node, transmission of ECG signals reduces to the transmission of indexes "R" and "K" of PSEVB and the frame-scaling coefficient which also results in considerable saving in the transmission band.