A novel ECG compression algorithm using Pulse-Width Modulation integrated quantization for low-power real-time monitoring

Abstract Cardiac monitoring systems in Internet of Things (IoT) healthcare, reliant on limited battery and computational capacity, need efficient local processing and wireless transmission for comprehensive analysis. Due to the power-intensive wireless transmission in IoT devices, ECG signal compression is essential to minimize data transfer. This paper presents a real-time, low-complexity algorithm for compressing electrocardiogram (ECG) signals. The algorithm uses just nine arithmetic operations per ECG sample point, generating a hybrid Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) signal storable in a compact 4-bit resolution format. Despite its simplicity, it performs comparably to existing methods in terms of Percentage Root-Mean-Square Difference (PRD) and space-saving while significantly reducing complexity and maintaining robustness against signal noise. It achieves an average Bit Compression Ratio (BCR) of 4 and space savings of 90.4% for ECG signals in the MIT-BIH database, with a PRD of 0.33% and a Quality Score (QS) of 12. The reconstructed signal shows no adverse effects on QRS complex detection and heart rate variability, preserving both the signal amplitude and periodicity. This efficient method for transferring ECG data from wearable devices enables real-time cardiac activity monitoring with reduced data storage requirements. Its versatility suggests potential broader applications, extending to compression of various signal types beyond ECG.