Lossles Compression of ECG signals : Performance Analysis in a Wireless Network

Abstract: With the development of multimedia and digital systems there is a need toreduce the cost of storage and transmission of information. The storage requirementsfor long signals like 24-hour heart monitoring are very large sosignal compression is often employed. The cost reduction achieved throughcompression leads to a reduction in the amount of data that represents theinformation. At the same time, once the decompression procedure is done,the resulting signal must contain enough detail for the cardiologist to be ableto identify irregularities. \Lossy"compressors may hide such details, whereas\lossless" compressor preserves the signal exactly as captured. This thesis researches into the performance of several lossless compressionalgorithms widely used for image coding. The dierent compressiontechniques are evaluated not only in terms of compression ratio and compressionand decompression bandwidths achieved but also based on theirperformance when the compressed data must be sent over any of the availablewireless networks. This thesis documents the work of a master's degree project carried outduring the spring of 2009. The project is part of a research project withinthe Department of Biomedical Engineering at Linkopings Universitet. Theproject aims at researching and developing a data compression model fortransmitting medical signals. The model should be feasible and it shouldprove the advantages of data compression. These implementations are intendedto be used within a larger system allowing a patient to transmitmedical data from a remote location.