A Real-time ECG Data Compression Algorithm for a Digital Holter System

This paper describes a real time ECG compression algorithm for a digital holter system. Proposed algorithm consists of five main procedures. First procedure is to differentiate signals, second is to choose a period of the differentiated signals and store them in memory, third is to perform the DCT(Discrete Cosine Transform) on the stored data, fourth is to apply a window filter, and fifth procedure is to apply Huffman Coding compression method on the data. This developed algorithm has been tested by applying 12 ECGs(electrocardiograms) from the MIT-BIH database and the PRD(Percent RMS Difference) and the CR(Compression Ratio) are calculated. It is found that the algorithm achieved a high level of compression performance with 1.82 of PRD and 8.82:1 of CR in average.