Implementation of Digital Filters for the Removal of Artifacts from Electrocardiogram

Abstract

In this paper various digital filters based algorithms that can be applied to ECG signal in order to remove artifacts from them are presented. Noises that commonly disturb the basic electrocardiogram are power line interference, instrumentation noise, external electromagnetic field interference, noise due to random body movements and respirational movements. These noises can be classified according to their frequency content. It is essential to reduce these disturbances in ECG signal to improve accuracy and reliability. Different types of adaptive and non-adaptive digital filters have been proposed to remove these noises. In this paper, window based FIR filters, adaptive filters and wavelet filter banks are applied to remove the artifacts. Performances of the filters are compared based on PSNR values.