Electrocardiogram signal compression and de-compression system

• US 8,917,779 B2
• Filed: 03/12/2013
• Issued: 12/23/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/16/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: National Cheng KUNG University (Government of The Republic of China)
• Original Assignee: National Cheng KUNG University (Government of The Republic of China)
• Inventors: Lan, Chien-Sheng, Lei, Sheau-Fang, Lai, Shin-Chi
• Primary Examiner(s): Timory, Kabir A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Huang, David S
• Application Number:
  US13/795,845
• Publication Number:
  US 20130243105A1
• Time in Patent Office: 651 Days
• Field of Search: 375/241, 375/240, 375/242, 375/244, 375/245, 375/246, 375/253, 375/340
• US Class Current: 375/241
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/40 for data related to laboratory analysis, e.g. patient specimen analysis
• CPC Class Codes: H03M 7/3059 Digital compression and data reduction techniques where the original information is represented by a subset or similar information, e.g. lossy compression
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/565 Conversion or adaptation of application format or content adding application control or application functional data H04L67/561
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5651 Reducing the amount or size of exchanged application data

Abstract

The invention provides an electrocardiogram signal compression and de-compression system. The invention uses the sign characteristics of the coefficients of the discrete cosine transform type IV and the characteristics of quantization of spectrum to perform the differential pulse code modulation of the spectrum for preserving the high frequency characteristics of the spectrum of the discrete Fourier transform. The invention also uses the Huffman coding to increase the compression ratio. Different from the conventional compression technology, the invention uses the fact that the quantization values of the spectrum in the high frequency are almost the same to increase the compression ratio and preserve the characteristics of high frequency components of the spectrum.

Claims

1. An electrocardiogram signal compression system includes:

a normalization device for receiving N electrocardiogram signals and performing a normalization operation on the N electrocardiogram signals to generate N normalized signals, where N is a positive integer;

a discrete cosine transform device connected to the normalization device for receiving the N normalized signals and performing a discrete cosine operation to generate N discrete cosine signals;

an absolute value and quantization device connected to the discrete cosine transform device for receiving the N discrete cosine signals and performing an absolute value operation and a quantization operation to generate N quantized amplitude signals;

a difference coding device connected to the absolute value and quantization device for receiving the N quantized amplitude signals and performing differential pulse code modulation (DPCM) on the N quantized amplitude signals to generate N difference signals;

a first variable length coding device connected to the difference coding device for performing a first variable length coding operation on the N difference signals to generate a first data stream;

a sign and difference device connected to the discrete cosine transform device for receiving the N discrete cosine signals and recoding signs of the N discrete cosine signals, so as to generate three sign signals;

a second variable length coding device connected to the sign and difference device for performing a second variable length coding operation on the three sign signals to generate a second data stream; and

a mixer connected to the first variable length coding device and the second variable length coding device for mixing the first data stream and the second data stream to generate a compressed electrocardiogram data stream.

2. The electrocardiogram signal compression system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the N electrocardiogram signals are respectively subtracted by 2^K−

1 and then divided by 2<sup>K−

1</sup> by the normalization device, so as to generate the N normalized signals, where K is a bit number of the N electrocardiogram signals.

3. The electrocardiogram signal compression system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the discrete cosine transform device is a type IV discrete cosine transform (DCT-IV) device.

4. The electrocardiogram signal compression system as claimed in claim 3, wherein the N discrete cosine signals are expressed by:

5. The electrocardiogram signal compression system as claimed in claim 4, wherein the absolute value and quantization device has a first quantization step and a second quantization step for performing the absolute value operation on the N discrete cosine signals to generate N absolute values of discrete cosine signals, and performing the quantization operation on the N absolute values of discrete cosine signals based on the first quantization step and the second quantization step, so as to generate the N quantized amplitude signals.

6. The electrocardiogram signal compression system as claimed in claim 5, wherein the first variable length coding device performs Huffman coding on the N difference signals to generate the first data stream.

7. The electrocardiogram signal compression system as claimed in claim 6, wherein the sign and difference device modifies part of the signs of the N discrete cosine signals so as to generate the three sign signals.

8. The electrocardiogram signal compression system as claimed in claim 7, wherein the second variable length coding device performs Huffman coding on the three sign signals to generate the second data stream.

9. An electrocardiogram signal de-compression system includes:

a parser device for receiving a compressed electrocardiogram data stream and analyzing the compressed electrocardiogram data stream, so as to generate a first data stream and a second data stream;

a first variable length decoding device connected to the parser device for performing a first variable length decoding operation on the first data stream to generate N difference signals, where N is a positive integer;

a difference decoding device connected to the first variable length decoding device for receiving the N difference signals and performing a differential pulse code modulation (DPCM) operation on the N difference signals to generate N quantized amplitude signals;

an inverse quantization device connected to the difference decoding device for receiving the N quantized amplitude signals and performing an inverse quantization operation to generate inverse quantization signals of N discrete cosine signals;

a second variable length decoding device connected to the parser device for performing a second variable length decoding operation on the second data stream to generate three sign and difference signals;

a restored difference and sign prediction device connected to the second variable length decoding device for receiving the three sign and difference signals and performing a restored difference and sign prediction operation to generate signs of the N discrete cosine signals;

an inverse discrete cosine transform device connected to the inverse quantization device and the restored difference and sign prediction device for receiving the inverse quantization signals of the N discrete cosine signals and the signs of the N discrete cosine signals to generate the N discrete cosine signals, and performing an inverse discrete cosine operation on the N discrete cosine signals so as to generate N normalized signals; and

an inverse normalization device connected to the inverse discrete cosine transform device for receiving the N normalized signals and performing an inverse normalization operation on the N normalized signals to generate N electrocardiogram signals.

10. The electrocardiogram signal de-compression system as claimed in claim 9, wherein the first variable length decoding device performs Huffman decoding on the first data stream to generate the N difference signals.

11. The electrocardiogram signal de-compression system as claimed in claim 10, wherein the inverse quantization device has a first quantization step and a second quantization step for performing the inverse quantization operation on the N quantized amplitude signals based on the first quantization step and the second quantization step to generate the inverse quantization signals of the N discrete cosine signals.

12. The electrocardiogram signal de-compression system as claimed in claim 11, wherein the second variable length decoding device performs Huffman decoding on the second data stream to generate the three sign and difference signals.

13. The electrocardiogram signal de-compression system as claimed in claim 12, wherein the restored difference and sign prediction device subtracts a first constant from the first sign and difference signal, and adds a second constant to the second and third sign and difference signals, so as to generate first to third temporal signals, and further performs sign prediction on the first to third temporal signals to generate the signs of the N discrete cosine signals.

14. The electrocardiogram signal de-compression system as claimed in claim 13, wherein the inverse discrete cosine transform device is a type IV inverse discrete cosine transform (IDCT-IV) device.

15. The electrocardiogram signal de-compression system as claimed in claim 14, wherein the N normalized signals are expressed by:

16. The electrocardiogram signal de-compression system as claimed in claim 15, wherein the N normalized signals are respectively multiplied by 2^K−

1 and then added with 2<sup>K−

1</sup> by the inverse normalization device, so as to generate the N electrocardiogram signals, where K is bit number of the N electrocardiogram signals.