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A Novel R Peak Detection Method for Mobile Environments

Article  in  IEEE Access · August 2018


DOI: 10.1109/ACCESS.2018.2867329

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Date of publication xxxx 00, 0000, date of current version xxxx 00, 0000.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/ACCESS.2017.Doi Number

A Novel R Peak Detection Method for Mobile


Environments
MIRAN LEE1, DAJEONG PARK1, SUH-YEON DONG2, and INCHAN YOUN1, 3
1
Center for Bionics, Korea Institute of Science and Technology, Seoul, 02792 South Korea
2
Department of Information Technology Engineering, Sookmyung Women’s University, Seoul, 04310 South Korea
3
KHU-KIST Department of Converging Science and Technology, KyungHee University, Seoul, 02792 South Korea

Corresponding author: Inchan Youn (iyoun@kist.re.kr) and Suh-Yeon Dong (suhyeon.dong@gmail.com).


This research was supported by the Bio & Medical Technology Development Program of the National Research Foundation (NRF) funded by the Korean
government, MSIP (2014M3A9D7070128) and by the Next-generation Medical Device Development Program for Newly-Created Market of the NRF funded
by the Korean government, MSIP (2015M3D5A1066100).

ABSTRACT With the development of the portable electrocardiogram (ECG) sensor, R peaks can be
monitored during various physical activities in mobile environment. However, such ECG signals contain real-
world noise, complicating the accurate detection of R peak. In this paper, we propose a novel approach for R
peak detection in ECG signals with real-world noise by using signal envelop filtering (SEF) and Shannon
energy envelope with the Savitzky–Golay filter (SEE-SG). SEF was designed to diminish abrupt peaks due
to movement by adjusting its amplitude based on an automatically determined threshold. SEE-SG was used
to enhance the QRS-complex. We first designed the experimental protocol for physical activity (sit, walk,
and ascend), namely Normal ECG in a Physical Activity Database (NPADB), and validated our method by
using the ECG data of 23 subjects. Moreover, to avoid overtuning on our database, we validated the proposed
method using two public databases: the MIT-BIH QT database (QTDB) and Noise Stress Test Database
(NSTDB). The experimental results show promising performance on QTDB (SE and P+: 99.96% and ER:
0.08%), NSTDB (SE: 94.07%, P+: 93.45, and ER: 12.57%), and NPADB (SE: 99.95%, P+: 99.78%, and ER:
0.27%). We also assessed our method by comparing the absolute differences of R–R intervals and heart rates
between actual and detected R peaks. In conclusion, as the proposed method achieved noise robustness and
reliable performance on R peak detection during physical activities, it can be used to monitor a user’s ECG
and cardiac health information accurately in daily life.

INDEX TERMS R peak detection, electrocardiogram, signal envelop filtering, Shannon energy envelope.

I. INTRODUCTION power line interference that may be present in ECG signals [7],
The electrocardiogram (ECG) is a tool used to assess the [8]. As wearable ECG sensors that allow noninvasive and
electrical activity of the heart [1], [2]. Various components inexpensive procedures are being widely used [9], users can
of the ECG, such as the P, Q, R, S, and T waves, provide move freely outside the lab environment. However, data
significant information for the diagnosis of heart diseases obtained from such uncontrolled environments encounter
and people’s health [3], [4]. As the R peak is the most severe motion artifacts caused by the user’s physical
prominent among these waves, it is used as a reference point movement. These motion-related artifacts complicate the
for estimating the location of other waves. Moreover, detection of R peaks. The effect of these artifacts can weaken
statistical information regarding successive R peaks is the R peak spectrum, causing confusion in the P, Q, R, S, and
frequently used for the assessment of heart rhythm’s T waveforms [10], or resulting in a large amplitude of noise
regularity and cardio-respiratory rate [5], [6]. Thus, detecting signals in ECG signals [7], [10].
accurate locations of R peaks is the first and most important For the past few years, several studies have increased efforts
step in ECG signal processing. to solve this problem by using the MIT-BIH Noise Stress Test
The exact detection of R peaks is difficult, owing to the database (NSTDB), which contains these motion-related
interference of various noises, such as motion artifacts, artifacts, such as motion artifacts, baseline wandering, and
electrode contact noise, respiration, muscle contraction, and muscle noise [11]. Li et al. [8] proposed a context-aware QRS

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Author Name: Preparation of Papers for IEEE Access (February 2017)

detector according to the noise level. Merah et al. [12] TABLE 1. Description of databases used in this study.
proposed a stationary wavelet transform filter to reduce
# Total Duration/subject
the large amplitude of noises in ECG signals. Sangketkit et Database Category
beats
# Sub
(min)
al. [13] proposed a dual-threshold method with a band-pass Normal ECG Sit 8,385 23 5
filter. Benitez et al [14] proposed a band-pass FIR filter with in Physical Walk 10,775 23 5
Hilbert transform to remove muscular noise and maximize the Activity
(NPADB) Ascend 1,4048 23 5
QRS complex. Dohare et al. [15] used dual-median filter to MIT-BIH
correct the baseline drift and variable window width for R QT Database N/A 86,892 82 15
peak detection, and Plesnik et al. [16] proposed a phase-space (QTDB)
SNR
reconstruction by using a band-pass filter for R peak detection 4,265 2 30
24 dB
of ECGs with noise. All these methods worked successfully MIT-BIH 18 dB 4,265 2 30
Noise Stress
and were validated using the NSTDB; however, this database 12 dB 4,265 2 30
Test Database
is synthesized, thus artificially adding noises on clean ECG 6 dB 4,265 2 30
(NSTDB)
0 dB 4,265 2 30
signals. A method that functions well in a real-world situation
-6 dB 4,265 2 30
has not yet been devised. * Sub: subject; SNR: signal-noise-ratio;
Recently, some studies acquired their own database of
ECGs including physical activities and proposed a peak
detection method. Chen et al. [17] tested their algorithm for A. NPADB
detecting physical activity (walking and running) but did not First, we collected normal ECG data during physical activities
report on the accuracy of R peak detection. Lang et al. [18] and to detect R peak in ECGs contaminated by real-world noises.
Tantiger et al. [19] also attempted to detect R peaks during Twenty-three subjects (16 males and 7 females, mean ±
physical activities by considering a limited number of standard deviation age of 27.2 ± 3.2 years) participated in three
participants and a limited data size. Nevertheless, they did not physical activities: sitting, walking, and ascending. Subjects
evaluate their methods by using public databases to verify were asked to perform each task on a treadmill for 5 min, as
generalization. The aforementioned studies show that R peak shown in Fig. 1. The treadmill speed for the walking and
detection during physical activities has just recently begun. ascending tasks was set to 4 and 2.7 km/h, and the angle for
In this study, we propose a novel method of R peak the ascending task was set to 20° from the ground.
detection during physical movements. To develop a robust and For acquiring ECG data, we used the T-REX TR100A
reliable peak detection method, we utilized our own database (Taewoong Medical, Gimpo, South Korea), which is a
as well as various public databases. We first acquired an ECG wearable ECG sensor with a disposable patch-type electrode
database by collecting data during various physical activities, attached roughly 3–5 cm below the left chest; the sensor was
such as sitting, walking, and ascending, which frequently placed over the patch. This device was designed to observe
occur in daily life. Then, we developed a method based on long-term ECG signals with a battery capable of measuring for
signal envelop filtering (SEF) to weaken the amplitude of up to 48 h. The adhesive of the patch is harmless to human
abrupt peaks caused by physical movement. In addition, the skin, and the electrodes of lead 1 (left), lead 2 (right), and
QRS complex was enhanced using Shannon energy envelop ground are implemented as one easily attached patch. As the
(SEE) with a Savitzky–Golay (SG) filter. By using the filtered frequency range of ECG signals is normally 0.05–100 Hz [21],
signal, R peaks were detected with respect to the adaptive the sampling rate of ECG data is set to 256 Hz. The entire
threshold. The proposed algorithm was verified using our procedure of the experiment was approved by the institutional
assembled database and further tested using two public review board of the Korea Institute of Science and Technology
databases to assess its generalization ability. (2017-030). Owing to the policy of protecting human subjects’
The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. Section privacy, the recorded ECG data are not publicly available.
2 introduces our database, and Section 3 presents the proposed
R peak detection method using ECG signals with real-world
noises of physical activity. Detection performance of the
proposed method is demonstrated with various ECG databases
in Section 4. Section 5 discusses the outcome of the
experiments, and Section 6 draws the study conclusion.

II. DATABASE
To validate the proposed method for ECG R peak detection, (a) (b) (c)
we used three databases: a database we assembled of normal
ECGs in physical activities (NPADB), and two public FIGURE 1. Physical activities of (a) sitting (b) walking (speed: 4.0
databases, MIT-BIH QT Database (QTDB) [20] and NSTDB km/h) and (c) ascending (speed: 2.7 km/h; angle from the ground:
20°) conducted during the experiment.
[11]. Table 1 lists the detailed explanations of each database.

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Author Name: Preparation of Papers for IEEE Access (February 2017)

B. MIT-BIH DATABASE adaptive threshold, as depicted in Fig. 2. During physical


We also used the QTDB to verify the proposed peak detection activity, an ECG typically undergoes baseline wandering,
method in a public domain. QTDB provides 105 records for resulting in less accurate peak detection. Thus, we first applied
15-min experts from the MIT-BIH Arrhythmia Database [22], a median filter to remove the baseline drift. Next, we created
the European Society of Cardiology ST-T Database [23], and an SEE for simultaneously detecting R peak and diminishing
several other ECG databases collected at Boston’s Beth Israel abrupt peaks. Then, we defined the QRS location using this
Deaconess Medical Center, and were selected to include a envelope with a SG filter and finally detected the R peak by
wide variety of QRS and ST-T morphologies for QT detection using an adaptive threshold. The detailed methodology for
algorithms [20]. Of the total 105 recordings, only 82 each step will be described as follows. Also, additional
recordings with beat annotations were selected. graphical materials are provided as a supplementary figure
In addition, for validating the noise sensitivity of the (Figure S1). For each physical activity, the output of each
proposed method, we used the NSTDB, comprising 12 half- stage in our algorithm can be found in Figure S1.
hour ECG recordings of two subjects in the MIT-BIH
Arrhythmia Database (Record nos.: 118 and 119), and three A. BASELINE CORRECTION
types of noise were independently added: baseline wandering, Baseline wandering can be frequently observed in an ECG
muscle artifacts, and electrode motion artifacts [11]. After the signal because of respiration and movement [24], which
first 5 min of clean ECG, noises were alternately and makes R peak detection in ECGs during physical activity even
separately added with a window size of 2 min. For each more difficult. In baseline correction, the median filter is a
subject recording, six signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) of 24, 18, nonlinear filter, which is frequently used due to lack of
12, 6, 0, and −6 dB were provided. distortion in the absence of baseline wandering and its
computational efficiency [15], [25]. This filter simply
III. METHOD subtracts the median of the ECG signal using a predefined
An ECG signal is usually contaminated by several types of window. We used two window widths (200 and 600 ms) as
noise, such as muscle noise, moving artifacts, and baseline selected in [26]. First, the filter with the window width of 200
wandering. This, the effect of noise on signals recorded during ms targets the QRS complexes and P waves, while the second
physical activity will be very severe. For this reason, filter with a window width of 600 ms targets the T wave. The
preprocessing and peak detection methods that were baseline estimates from two median filters are then subtracted
developed for ECG signals recorded without movement, in a from the original ECG to finally obtain the baseline-corrected
laboratory environment, may not be enough for applying to signal.
signals during physical activities. Therefore, we propose a
novel preprocessing and peak detection method that works B. SEF
well in mobile environments. Envelope filtering has been frequently used in ECG signal
The proposed method consists of four steps: baseline processing to enhance QRS complex in [27]-[30]. However, it
correction, SEF, SEE calculation, and R peak detection using can also emphasize abrupt peaks simultaneously. These abrupt
peaks can cause false negatives, causing the actual R peak to
Step 3
Start
be neglected, and can be seen more frequently in physical
Shannon energy envelope calculation activity. Therefore, we additionally implemented the SEF to
Calculating normalized squared diminish unwanted abrupt peaks from ECG signals in physical
ECG signals
differentiation
activity. To do so, we modified the analytic SEF algorithm
Step 1 Generating Shannon energy (SE) (ASEF) used to remove spikes in EEG signals [31]. We first
Baseline correction extracted envelope 𝑚(𝑡) of real signal 𝑠(𝑡) ; this is the
Enveloping Shannon energy
Applying method filter with Savitzky-Golay filter (SEE) instantaneous amplitude of 𝑠(𝑡) written as

Step 4
𝑠(𝑡) = 𝑚(𝑡) ∙ 𝑐𝑜𝑠 (𝑡). (1)
Step 2

Signal envelope filtering


Peak detection Then, we filtered 𝑚(𝑡) by using a band-pass filter with a
Applying adaptive threshold cut-off frequency of 10–40 Hz to filter the QRS complexes,
using low-pass filter
Finding the optimal threshold and the filtered envelope was denoted as 𝑚𝑓𝑖𝑙𝑡 (𝑡). We defined
Generating bi-level signal threshold 𝑡ℎ(𝑡) by using the filtered envelope 𝑚𝑓𝑖𝑙𝑡 (𝑡), its
Modifying the amplitude
of abrupt peak average ̅̅̅̅̅̅,
𝑚𝑓𝑖𝑙𝑡 and arbitrary constant 𝛿, as follows:
Output R peak location
𝑡ℎ(𝑡) = 𝑚𝑓𝑖𝑙𝑡 (𝑡) + 𝛿 ∙ ̅̅̅̅̅̅.
𝑚𝑓𝑖𝑙𝑡 (2)
End
At each time point t, we calculated the final filtered
FIGURE 2. Flow chart of the proposed method in four steps: baseline envelope 𝑀𝑓𝑖𝑙𝑡 (𝑡) according to the magnitude of 𝑚(𝑡). As
correction, signal envelope filtering to diminish the abrupt peaks,
Shannon energy envelope calculation for QRS enhancement, and shown in (3), the value of 𝑚(𝑡) was selectively replaced with
peak detection. 𝑚𝑓𝑖𝑙𝑡 (𝑡) . If 𝑚(𝑡) > 𝑡ℎ(𝑡) , m(t) is replaced by 𝑡ℎ(𝑡) .

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This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI
10.1109/ACCESS.2018.2867329, IEEE Access
Author Name: Preparation of Papers for IEEE Access (February 2017)

4.0 4.0 4.0

δ=0 δ = 0.2 δ = 0.8 SE P+ ER


3.5 3.5 3.5

98 18
ECG amplitude (mV)

3.0 3.0 3.0

Performance of SE and P+ (%)


2.5 2.5 2.5

2.0 2.0 2.0 16


96
1.5 1.5 1.5

1.0 1.0 1.0 14

ER (%)
0.5 Original 0.5 Original 0.5 Original 94
Filtered (δ=0) Filtered (δ=0.2) Filtered (δ=0.8)
0 0 0
0 1 2 3 4 5 0 1 2 3 4 5 0 1 2 3 4 5 12
Time (sec) Time (sec) Time (sec)

(a) (b) (c) 92


10
1
Value of Cxz and σ*

0.8 Csz
σ* 90 8
0.6 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 2.0

0.4
Parameter δ

0.2
FIGURE 4. Testing performances with respect to parameter 𝛅 (SE:
0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 2.0 sensitivity, P+: positive predictivity, and ER: detection error rate).
Parameter δ
(d) increases, 𝐶𝑠𝑧 approaches 1. Another index, denoted as σ∗ ,
FIGURE 3. Example of the signal envelope filter with 𝛅. (a) Graph of was defined using the standard deviation of the filtered signal
original ECG with filtered (𝛅 = 0) signals; (b) filtered (𝛅 = 0.2) signals; 𝑧(𝑡) . We computed the standard deviation of the filtered
(c) filtered (𝛅= 0.8) signals; (d) 𝑪𝒔𝒛 (black-line with squared marker)
and 𝛔∗ (red-line with circle marker) with respect to 𝛅. signal for each value of 𝛿 and normalized the values of the
standard deviation to be in the range 0–1. Then, we obtained
Otherwise, 𝑚(𝑡) is retained. Then, the final filtered signal the final index σ∗ by subtracting the normalized standard
𝑧(𝑡) is obtained by multiplying 𝑀𝑓𝑖𝑙𝑡 (𝑡) with 𝑐𝑜𝑠 (𝑡): deviation from 1. As 𝛿 increased, the filtered signal
approached closer to the original signal (where 𝐶𝑠𝑧
𝑡ℎ(𝑡), 𝑖𝑓 𝑚(𝑡) ≥ 𝑡ℎ(𝑡) approaches 1). In this case, σ∗ approaches 0 because the
𝑀𝑓𝑖𝑙𝑡 (𝑡) = { . (3)
𝑚(𝑡), 𝑖𝑓 𝑚(𝑡) < 𝑡ℎ(𝑡) standard deviation of 𝑧(𝑡) increased, owing to unfiltered
abrupt peaks. In contrast, as 𝛿 approached close to 0, the
𝑧(𝑡) = 𝑀𝑓𝑖𝑙𝑡 (𝑡) ∙ 𝑐𝑜𝑠(𝑡). (4) filtered signal’s standard deviation decreased relatively such
that σ∗ approached 1 (where 𝐶𝑠𝑧 approaches 0). Therefore, we
To find the optimal threshold that diminishes abrupt peaks could observe the point at which these two indices crossed
while maintaining fiducial points, we compared the envelope each other within the range of 𝛿 defined earlier. We assumed
shapes by varying parameter 𝛿 in (2). If parameter 𝛿 is the value of 𝛿 near this crossing point to represent the
extremely small, the envelope at almost every time point is appropriate adjustment of abrupt peaks, and tested it with
filtered, that is, fiducial points can also diminish (Fig. 3 (a)). example data (using data excerpted from NPADB, excluding
While  is extremely large, the threshold increases the validation of performance in the results), as shown in Fig.
considerably and the envelope is not affected by the filter (Fig. 4.
3(c)).
To determine the optimal 𝛿, we used index of coherence C. SEE CALCULATION
𝐶𝑠𝑧 and an index based on the standard deviation of the filtered To detect R peaks, it is necessary to identify the location of the
signal 𝑧(𝑡) for each 𝛿 in the range 0 ≤  ≤ 2 (𝛿 has been QRS complex. We generated the SEE using the SG filter to
varied by 0.1 units). First, coherence 𝐶𝑠𝑧 (𝑓) is the ratio of the emphasize peak information. More specifically, we aimed to
squared magnitude of cross spectral density ( 𝑃𝑠𝑧 ) and the emphasize the QRS complex while attenuating the P and T
product of each auto spectral density (𝑃𝑠𝑠 and 𝑃𝑧𝑧 ) at each waves. To do this, we first differentiated the filtered signal
frequency 𝑓. We computed the average 𝐶𝑠𝑧 with respect to 𝑓 𝑧(𝑡) in the first order before calculating the SEE. As noted in
for each value of 𝛿. This value indicates how well filtered [27], the first-order differentiation has an effect equivalent to
signal 𝑧(𝑡) corresponds to raw signal 𝑠(𝑡) . Thus, as 𝛿 that of a high-pass
filter that passes high-frequency components (QRS complex; normalization method. We denoted this unipolar signal as 𝑆𝐷 ̂𝑛 .
10–40 Hz) and attenuates low-frequency components (P and Then, 𝑆𝐸𝑛 can be obtained following the Shannon energy
T waves; 5–10 Hz). Then, we squared the first-order function [32] as follows.
differentiation of 𝑧(𝑡) to obtain a unipolar signal for peak
𝑆𝐸𝑛 = −(𝑆𝐷 ̂ 𝑛 ).
̂ 𝑛 ) log(𝑆𝐷 (6)
detection. The squared differentiation of the filtered signal is
denoted as 𝑆𝐷𝑛 and can be computed as Within one cycle of an ECG signal, the obtained 𝑆𝐸𝑛 has
three bumps due to Q, R, and S peaks, as shown in Fig. 5 (b).
𝑆𝐷𝑛 = (𝑧𝑛+1 − 𝑧𝑛 )2 . (5)
Next, 𝑆𝐸𝑛 was smoothed using an SG filter to allow this
where 𝑛 is a sample index. We normalized the value of 𝑆𝐷𝑛 envelope to smoothly cover all of these bumps, as shown in
to scale its range from 0 to 1 by using a min–max Fig. 5 (c). Unlike the standard smoothing filter, the SG filter

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This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI
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Author Name: Preparation of Papers for IEEE Access (February 2017)

1000
(a) Original ECG signal z(t) if 𝑆𝐸𝐸𝑛 > 𝐴𝑇𝑛 , 𝐵𝑛 = 1, else 𝐵𝑛 = 0. Therefore, bi-level signal
𝐵𝑛 = 1 during the QRS complex of the ECG signal, and 0
0
otherwise. Finally, the R peak was detected as the maximal
-1000
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4
amplitude point in each QRS region where 𝐵𝑛 = 1, as shown
0.4
(b) Shannon energy SE in Fig. 5 (d).
According to the aforementioned processing, we adjusted
0.2
the abrupt peak by using the SEF and enhanced the QRS
0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 complex based on SEE with the SG filter. Fig. 6 (b) shows the
1
(c) Shannon energy envelope actual R peaks that are not revealed by the abrupt peaks
without SEF, while Fig. 6 (c) shows that they are noticeably
0.5
enhanced after SEF application.
0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4

1000
(d) Original ECG and bi-level signal
1
IV. RESULTS
0 0.5
A. PERFORMANCE MEASURES
-1000 0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 As a measure of R peak detection performance, sensitivity
FIGURE 5. Example of Shannon energy envelope and bi-level signal (SE), positive predictivity (P+), and error-detection rate (ER)
((a) Original ECG signals; (b) Shannon energy SE; (c) Shannon were considered in this study [17], [35], [36]. To compute
energy envelope with Savitzky-Golay filter (blue-solid line) and an
adaptive threshold (magenta-dot line); (d) Original ECG (blue-solid these measures, the number of true beats (TB), true positives
line) and bi-level signal (magenta-solid line) with annotation R peaks (TP), false positives (FP), and false negatives (FN) were
(red-circle).
counted for each record. TB shows the actual R peak, and its
has been reported to be advantageous for peak preservation annotation was determined by four medical experts. More
using a simple least square fitting [33], [34]. We denoted the specifically, the R peak is determined to be TB when more
filtered envelope as 𝑆𝐸𝐸𝑛 . The window width of the SG filter than three quarters of the experts labeled it as TB.
was selected as 35, which is roughly twice the full width at SE is the ratio of the R peaks (TP) correctly detected using the
half of maximum of the QRS complex. Furthermore, the proposed method to the true beats (TB) by the given
degree of the SG filter was selected as 5, and all of these annotation. P+ is the ratio of the true positive to all the detected
parameters were selected based on the validation using our R peaks (i.e., TP and FP), and ER is the ratio of false detections
preliminary data. Filtered envelope 𝑆𝐸𝐸𝑛 was then used to (FP and FN) over the TBs by the given annotation [17]. These
define the threshold for the location of the QRS complex. measures are calculated using (7)–(9).
𝑆𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑖𝑡𝑦 (𝑆𝐸) = 𝑇𝑃/(𝑇𝑃 + 𝐹𝑁) × 100 (7)
D. PEAK DETECTION USING AN ADAPTIVE
THRESHOLD
We used the filtered envelope as the adaptive threshold for 𝑃𝑜𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑑𝑖𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑖𝑡𝑦 (𝑃+)
(8)
= 𝑇𝑃/(𝑇𝑃 + 𝐹𝑃) × 100
QRS localization. Adaptive threshold 𝐴𝑇𝑛 was calculated
based on low-pass filtering at 3 Hz of envelope 𝑆𝐸𝐸𝑛 from the 𝐷𝑒𝑡𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑒𝑟𝑟𝑜𝑟 𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒 (𝐸𝑅)
previous step. This step was especially necessary for the ECG (9)
= (𝐹𝑃 + 𝐹𝑁)/𝑇𝐵 × 100
signals obtained during physical activities, to reliably remove
the unexpected bumps in P or T waves due to physical For determining the detected R peaks as TPs, the time range
movement. Then, 𝑆𝐸𝐸𝑛 was converted to bi-level signal 𝐵𝑛 ; of 150 ms around the annotated R peak is considered to be a
TP region [17], [37]. In other words, any detected peak within
Abrupt peak
this time range is considered as the correct peak (TP). This
determination rule was applied to all three databases for
objectivity.
(a) In addition, the differences of the means of R–R intervals
w/o SEF w/ SEF (DRRI) and heart rate (DHR) have been used as performance
R R R R R R R R R R R R
measures for evaluating the proposed R peak detection method.
Both DRRI and DHR are calculated using (10)–(11),
NSD

NSD

respectively.
SEE

SEE

𝐷𝑅𝑅𝐼 (𝑚𝑠) = |mRRI(actual) − mRRI(detected)| (10)


(b) (c)

FIGURE 6. Comparison of processes using the signal envelop filter


(SEF): (a) original ECG signal; (b) Normalized squared differential 𝐷𝐻𝑅 (𝑏𝑝𝑚) = |(60/mRRI(actual) )
(NSD) and Shannon energy envelope (SEE) without SEF; (c) NSD (11)
− (60/mRRI(detected))|
and SEE with SEF.

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TABLE 2. Results of R peak detection using the proposed method in QTDB and NSTDB.

Database SNR (dB) # TB SE (%) P+ (%) ER (%)


QTDB N/A 86,892 99.96 (±0.08) 99.96 (±0.11) 0.08 (±0.14)
NSTDB 24 4,265 99.95 (±0.07) 99.88 (±0.02) 0.17 (±0.05)
18 4,265 99.86 (±0.08) 99.88 (±0.04) 0.26 (±0.12)
12 4,265 99.58 (±0.47) 99.83 (±0.12) 0.59 (±0.59)
6 4,265 98.11 (±1.24) 97.07 (±1.62) 4.85 (±2.89)
0 4,265 90.20 (±0.45) 87.73 (±2.06) 22.43 (±2.79)
-6 4,265 76.75 (±0.14) 76.32 (±2.90) 47.14 (±3.72)
* Numbers in parentheses indicate standard deviations.

where mRRI (actual) and mRRI (detected) represent the 93.45%, and 12.57%, respectively. In the NSTDB, the best
means of R–R intervals from actual R peaks and detected R performances of SE, P +, and ER were 99.95% (SNR: 24 dB),
peaks using the proposed method, respectively. 99.88% (SNR: 24 and 18 dB), and 0.17% (SNR: 24 dB),
respectively, while their respective worst performances were
B. PERFORMANCE OF THE MIT-BIH DATABASE 76.75 (SNR: −6 dB), 76.32 (SNR: −6 dB), and 47.14 (SNR:
The performance of the R peak detection method in QTDB −6 dB).
and NSTDB is summarized Table 2. In the case of the QTDB,
the total number of TBs is 86,892. The averages of SE, P+, C. PERFORMANCE OF NPADB
and ER are 99.96%, 99.96%, and 0.08%, respectively. Among Finally, we verified the proposed method in our database,
these, the worst SE, P+, and ER were 99.57% (sele0114), which comprises ECG recordings, obtained during physical
99.50% (sel847), and 0.68% (sel232), respectively. The activities, and thus may be contaminated with real-world noise.
NSTDB contains noise-contaminated ECG recordings with Tables 3–5 report the resulting performances of using the
varying SNRs, with the average SE, P+, and ER as 94.08%, proposed R peak detection method during the tasks of sitting,
TABLE 3. Performance of ECG R peak detection in “sit” class of NPADB using proposed method.

Rec. TB TP FP FN SE P+ ER Rec. TB TP FP FN SE P+ ER
S1 386 386 0 0 100.00 100.00 0.00 S13 405 405 0 0 100.00 100.00 0.00
S2 428 428 0 0 100.00 100.00 0.00 S14 295 295 0 0 100.00 100.00 0.00
S3 379 379 0 0 100.00 100.00 0.00 S15 387 387 0 0 100.00 100.00 0.00
S4 398 398 0 0 100.00 100.00 0.00 S16 339 339 1 0 100.00 99.71 0.29
S5 368 368 0 0 100.00 100.00 0.00 S17 410 410 0 0 100.00 100.00 0.00
S6 322 322 0 0 100.00 100.00 0.00 S18 354 354 0 0 100.00 100.00 0.00
S7 296 296 0 0 100.00 100.00 0.00 S19 368 368 0 0 100.00 100.00 0.00
S8 310 310 0 0 100.00 100.00 0.00 S20 373 373 0 0 100.00 100.00 0.00
S9 418 418 0 0 100.00 100.00 0.00 S21 325 325 0 0 100.00 100.00 0.00
S10 286 286 0 0 100.00 100.00 0.00 S22 351 350 0 1 99.72 100.00 0.28
S11 443 443 0 0 100.00 100.00 0.00 S23 371 371 0 0 100.00 100.00 0.00
S12 373 373 0 0 100.00 100.00 0.00 Total 8,385 8,384 1 1 99.99 99.99 0.03

TABLE 4. Performance of ECG R peak detection in “walk” class of NPADB using proposed method.

Rec. TB TP FP FN SE P+ ER Rec. TB TP FP FN SE P+ ER
S1 470 469 2 1 99.79 99.58 0.64 S13 514 514 0 0 100.00 100.00 0.00
S2 547 547 0 0 100.00 100.00 0.00 S14 416 415 6 1 99.76 98.57 1.68
S3 460 460 0 0 100.00 100.00 0.00 S15 488 487 2 1 99.80 99.59 0.61
S4 511 511 1 0 100.00 99.80 0.20 S16 440 440 13 0 100.00 97.13 2.95
S5 491 491 0 0 100.00 100.00 0.00 S17 502 502 2 0 100.00 99.60 0.40
S6 410 410 1 0 100.00 99.76 0.24 S18 430 430 0 0 100.00 100.00 0.00
S7 428 428 1 0 100.00 99.77 0.23 S19 467 467 4 0 100.00 99.15 0.86
S8 477 477 1 0 100.00 99.79 0.21 S20 495 495 0 0 100.00 100.00 0.00
S9 484 483 0 1 99.79 100.00 0.21 S21 384 384 13 0 100.00 96.73 3.39
S10 364 364 0 0 100.00 100.00 0.00 S22 404 403 1 1 99.75 99.75 0.50
S11 563 563 1 0 100.00 99.82 0.18 S23 489 488 0 1 99.80 100.00 0.20
S12 541 540 0 1 99.82 100.00 0.18 Total 10,775 10,768 48 7 99.93 99.52 0.55

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TABLE 5. Performance of ECG R peak detection in “ascend” class of NPADB using proposed method.

Rec. TB TP FP FN SE P+ ER Rec. TB TP FP FN SE P+ ER
S1 593 593 1 0 100.00 99.83 0.17 S13 631 630 1 1 99.84 99.84 0.32
S2 685 685 0 0 100.00 100.00 0.00 S14 545 544 4 1 99.82 99.27 0.92
S3 606 606 0 0 100.00 100.00 0.00 S15 601 600 0 1 99.83 100.00 0.17
S4 668 668 0 0 100.00 100.00 0.00 S16 561 560 4 1 99.82 99.29 0.89
S5 651 651 0 0 100.00 100.00 0.00 S17 600 600 1 0 100.00 99.83 0.17
S6 531 530 0 1 99.81 100.00 0.19 S18 593 592 0 1 99.83 100.00 0.17
S7 592 592 0 0 100.00 100.00 0.00 S19 583 583 0 0 100.00 100.00 0.00
S8 688 687 2 1 99.85 99.71 0.44 S20 604 604 0 0 100.00 100.00 0.00
S9 642 642 1 0 100.00 99.84 0.16 S21 488 488 8 0 100.00 98.39 1.64
S10 497 496 0 1 99.80 100.00 0.20 S22 551 551 0 0 100.00 100.00 0.00
S11 750 750 1 0 100.00 99.87 0.13 S23 638 638 0 0 100.00 100.00 0.00
S12 750 750 0 0 100.00 100.00 0.00 Total 14,048 14,040 23 8 99.94 99.82 0.24

TABLE 6. Absolute differences in mRRI (DRRI) and mHR (DHR) computed by R peaks using proposed method and ground truth.

Absolute difference (between actual and detected R peaks)


Database Category DRRI (ms) DHR (bpm)
Mean SD Mean SD
Sit 0.59 1.57 0.04 0.10
NPADB Walk 4.20 4.57 0.58 0.58
Ascend 3.10 7.32 0.75 1.87
QTDB N/A 0.23 0.11 0.91 0.12
SNR: 24 dB 0.73 0.45 1.2 1.21
SNR: 18 dB 0.62 0.35 1.01 1.42
SNR: 12 dB 2.70 3.28 1.13 0.64
NSTDB
SNR: 6 dB 8.86 4.19 17.34 0.32
SNR: 0 dB 22.23 19.7 38.46 0.91
SNR: −6 dB 22.66 7.34 36.09 8.67
* N/A: not applicable; mRRI: mean of R–R intervals; mHR: mean of heart rate

walking, and ascending, respectively. The performance the means of DRRI and DHR increased as SNR decreased
measures for sitting, which contain relatively clean ECG data, from 24 to −6 dB.
were 99.99% of the average SE and P+, and 0.03% of the
average ER for 8,385 beats. In contrast, the average SE and P+ V. DISCUSSION
slightly dropped to 99.93% and 99.52% for the walking task, In this paper, we proposed a novel R peak detection method
and 99.94% and 99.82% for the ascending task, respectively. using SEF and SEE-SG on an ECG signal with real-world
Moreover, the average ERs slightly increased to 0.55% and noise. From its reliable performances on three real and
0.24% for the walking and ascending tasks, respectively. synthesized databases, our method showed its usefulness in a
mobile environment. However, some issues, such as
D. COMPARISON OF THE RESULT OF THE R–R parameter choice in SEF and performance comparison
INTERVAL AND HEART RATE according to each database’s characteristics, still need to be
We additionally assessed the means of R–R intervals (mRRI) discussed.
and heart rate (mHR) by using the proposed R peak detection
method. Table 6 confirms DRRI and DHR between actual R A. PARAMETER CHOICE
peaks and the R peaks detected using the proposed method. In We proposed the combined method of using SEF to adjust
the case of NPADB, the means of DRRI were 0.59 (sitting), abrupt peaks in the ECGs with real-world noise and using
4.20 (walking), and 3.10 (ascending) ms. In addition, the SEE-SEG to enhance QRS-complex regions. In the process of
means of DHR were 0.04 (sitting), 0.58 (walking), and 0.75 developing our method, we used a sample dataset excerpted
(ascending) bpm, and the range of difference is less than 1 bpm. from NPADB, and excluded this dataset for the performance
In the case of QTDB, the mean of DRRI and DHR were 0.23 validation in the results.
(±0.11) ms, and 0.91 (±0.12) bpm, respectively. In NSTDB, In the SEF, we mentioned earlier that our method was
motivated from the ASEF algorithm used to remove spikes in

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an EEG signal, as proposed by Melia et al. [31]. The most B. PEAK DETECTION IN NORMAL ECG
remarkable difference about their method compared with our QTDB includes ECGs with annotations by cardiologists and
method is not the removal but the weakening of the amplitude is close to a normal ECG database as the percentage of beats
of the abrupt peak. As their method was aimed at eliminating marked “normal” is 92%.
the noise of the EEG signals, the amplitude of the abrupt peak We summarized other studies, validating their algorithms
diminished to be m𝑓𝑖𝑙𝑡 (t) when it was greater than the using QTDB in Table 7 [12], [37]-[42]. The table shows that
threshold. In contrast, our method weakens the amplitude of our method outperformed other methods on QTDB in terms of
the abrupt peak to threshold 𝑡ℎ(𝑡) to maintain the shape of the all three types of performance measures, that is, SE, P+, and
R peak amplitude. ER.
Owing to this critical difference with the method by Melia In addition, we tested the proposed method for normal R
et al. [31], parameter δ could not be determined in a different peak detection using MIT-BIH Arrhythmia Database
manner. We determined optimal parameter δ by using both (MITDB). Ten records (100, 101, 103, 115, 122, 123, 205, 220,
𝐶𝑥𝑧 and 𝜎 ∗ to create threshold 𝑡ℎ(𝑡). Fig. 3 (d) shows that 230, and 234) from healthy persons containing normal ECG
optimal parameter δ = 0.2 when the difference between 𝐶𝑥𝑧 signals in MITDB have been used [34] for validating our
(0.43) and 𝜎 ∗ (0.39) is the lowest in the case of the sample method. As a result, these records included over 98.9% normal
dataset. As shown in Fig. 3(b), by using this optimal parameter ECG beats of the total beats and showed good average
δ (0.2), which preserves the phase and shape of the original performances (SE: 99.99±0.02; P+: 99.93±0.08; ER:
ECG signal, only the amplitude of the abrupt peak is weakened. 0.08±0.08 %).
Thus, we conclude that the value of δ when the difference Furthermore, we also measured the output signal-to-noise
between 𝐶𝑥𝑧 and 𝜎 ∗ is the lowest is optimal in SEF. In other ratio (𝑆𝑁𝑅𝑜 ) of our algorithm using record 103 in MITDB.
words, the value of δ is not fixed to a specific value because Record 103 was selected because it contained clean and
ECG signal characteristics may vary depending on the subject normal ECG signals in the MITDB, and it was generated with
and recording environment. Instead, our algorithm the same protocol [11] as synthesized records 118 and record
automatically determines the optimal δ for each record based 119 of NSTDB. Six types of noise signals (SNR: -6, 0, 6, 12,
on the aforementioned criterion. 18, and 24 dB) were synthesized in record 103 and used data

TABLE 7. Comparisons of the methods using QTDB and NSTDB.

Publication Preprocessing QRS enhancement and R peak detection # TB SE (%) P+ (%) ER (%)
QTDB
Median filter + Signal envelope
Present study Shannon energy + Savizky–Golay filter 86,892 99.96 99.96 0.08
filtering
Band-pass filter (0.4-40 Hz) +
Ghaffari et al. [37] Multiple higher order moments metric (MHOM) 86,892 99.96 99.92 0.12
Wavelet transform
Rezgui et al. [38] Empirical mode decomposition Selection of IMFs for R-peak 86,892 99.95 99.91 0.14
Local maxima, minima and zero crossings of the
Merah et al. [12] Stationary wavelet transform 86,892 99.94 99.89 0.18
fourth SWT coefficient detail
Band-pass filter (5-20 Hz) + Modified Hilbert transform-based algorithms
Ghaffari et al. [39] 86,892 99.92 99.89 0.19
Hilbert transform (ECGMHT)
Multiscale approach proposed
Martinez et al. [40] Wavelet transform 86,892 99.92 99.88 0.20
by Li et al. [43].
Wavelet-based multiresolution Signal mirroring + local maximum location and
Qin et al. [41] 86,995 99.83 99.90 N/R
analysis adaptive threshold selection
Thungtong [42] Wavelet transform Selection of the optimal wavelet detail coefficients 83,292 99.63 99.78 0.59

NSTDB
Nonlinearly scaled curve length transformation
Li et al. [8] Low-pass filter N/R 98.64 77.61 N/R
(S.S.A)
Local maxima, minima and zero crossings of the
Merah et al. [12] Stationary wavelet transform 25,590 95.30 93.98 10.81
fourth SWT coefficient detail
Sign removal and smoothening using moving
Sangketkit et al. [13] Band-pass filter (5-22 Hz) N/R 94.83 89.83 N/R
average filter
Median filter + Signal envelope
This study Shannon energy + Savizky–Golay filter 25,590 94.08 93.45 12.57
filtering
Benitez et al. [14] Band-pass filter (8-20 Hz) Hilbert transform N/R 93.48 90.60 N/R

Dohare et al. [15] Median filter Sixth power of signal + variable window width 25,590 88.09 88.93 N/R

Plesnik et al. [16] Band-pass filter (0.5-100 Hz) Phase-space reconstruction 25,590 72.01 86.73 64.86

* N/R: not reported; #TB: number of true beat; SE: sensitivity; P+: positive predictivity; ER: detection error rate

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containing noise signal (2 minutes) to measure SNR. 𝑆𝑁𝑅𝑜 detection results using this database. The method proposed by
was calculated using formula (12) [34]. Merah et al. [12] showed reasonably good performance in
1 𝑁−1 terms of all three performance measures and slightly
∑ |𝑠̂ (𝑛)|2 outperformed our method. Through these comparisons,
𝑆𝑁𝑅o = 10 log10 ( 𝑁 𝑛=0 ) (12)
1 𝑁−1 although our algorithm was not aimed to detect arrhythmic
∑ |𝑠(𝑛) − 𝑠̂ (𝑛)|2
𝑁 𝑛=0 ECG beats, we could achieve promising results on noisy as
well as abnormal ECGs.
where 𝑁 is the number of samples. 𝑠(𝑛) and 𝑠̂ (𝑛) denote
the clean signal and denoised signal, respectively. As a result, D. PEAK DETECTION IN MOVING ECG
𝑆𝑁𝑅𝑜 is as 1.96, 6.74, 12.38, 17.75, 22.25, and 27.24dB when We compared our method with previous studies for R peak
synthesized with -6, 0, 6, 12, 18, and 24 dB of noise signals, detection during physical activities (Table 8). Similar to our
respectively, and then it was finally proved that the SNR was study in which we developed our own database (NPADB),
improved using our algorithm by removing noise signals. some of the previous studies also used their own databases of
ECGs in moving environments.
C. PEAK DETECTION IN NOISY ECG Chen et al. [17] proposed their algorithm to reduce noise
NSTDB includes ECGs with three types of noise; thus, we during running and compared RRIs with commercial ECG
selected this database to evaluate the noise sensitivity of the sensors. However, they did not report the quantitative result of
peak detection method. Moreover, one of the recordings R peak detection during running and evaluated their algorithm
comprises 100% arrhythmia and the other contained 22.35% with relatively little data (10 RRIs of 10 persons). Similar to
abnormal beats according to the beat annotation provided in our study, Lang et al. [18] and Tantinger et al. [19] represented
the database. Therefore, the performance on this database can good performances of peak detection in physical activity by
assess abnormal-beat detection ability as well as noise modifying the filter used in Kohler’s algorithm [44]. However,
sensitivity. they did not evaluate their algorithms using any public
Several studies used this database and are summarized in database, and thus the reliability of their algorithms is not
Table 7. Among them, the study by Li et al. [8] achieved the validated yet.
best SE of 98.64% but the worst P+ of 77.61%. It was Compared to these aforementioned methods, our method
presumed that there were many FPs in their method. achieved better performance in a real moving environment in
Sangketkit et al. [13] reported 0.8% higher SE than our terms of all three types of performance measures in R peak
method, but they only considered the ECGs of 24, 12, and 0 detection. In addition to the results obtained using public
dB SNRs. Moreover, their value of P+ was lower than that databases, our method proved that it is possible to detect R
obtained using our proposed method. Benitez et al. [14], peaks sufficiently well for ECG with real-world noise due to
Dohare et al. [15], and Plesnik et al. [16] also reported their various physical activities.

TABLE 8. Comparison of the methods using own DB.

Publication Preprocessing QRS enhancement and R Activity # Sub Performance


peak detection
- Result of RRI and HR
Enhancement mask to the
Band-pass filter (0.5-17 mRRI: 0.74 ms
Chen et al. [17] filtered signal + Searching - Run 10
Hz) (the difference of mRRI between their algorithm
QRS fiducials points
and commercial sensor)
- R peak detection
Band-pass filter (0.67- Zero-crossing QRS detection - Run (10 km/h)
SE: 99.2
Lang et al. [18] 40 Hz) + IIR forward- by Kohler et al. [44] + - Ergometer (130 Watt) 10
P+: 97.2
backward filtering threshold * Duration: each 5 min
- Sit - R peak detection
- Walk (2 km/h) SE: 99.94%
Zero-crossing QRS detection
Tantinger et al. Linear phase FIR filter - Run (8 km/h) P+: 98.77%
by Kohler et al. [44] + 10
[19] (18-35 Hz) - Cycle (150 Watt)
threshold
- Rowing
* Duration: each 2 min
- R peak detection
SE: 99.95%
P+: 99.78%
ER: 0.27%
Shannon energy + Savizky - Sit
Median filter + Signal Golay filter + adaptive - Ascend (2.7 km/h, 20°)
This study 23 - Result of RRI and HR
envelope filtering threshold using low-pass - Walk (4.5 km/h)
DRRI: 2.63 ms
filter * Duration: each 5 min
DHR: 0.46 ms
(the difference of mRRI (DRRI) and mHR (DHR)
from between actual R peaks and detected R
peaks)
* N/R and Sub denotes not reported and subject, respectively

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VI. CONCLUSION [8] H. Li and J. Tan, “Body Sensor Network Based Context
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York, NY, USA, 2006, pp. 1-8.
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We developed and validated our method using the ECG “Adaptive reduction of motion artifact in the
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daily lives. Future work will be undertaken to improve our fiducial points in the phase space using the Euclidian
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This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI
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and M.S. degree in Bio-convergence Engineering
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from Korea University. She works in Center for
detecting R-peaks in electrocardiogram (ECG) signal,”
Bionics at Korea Institute of Science and
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Technology, Seoul, Rep. of Korea.
Mar. 2012, DOI: 10.1016/j.bspc.2011.03.004.
Her current research interests include bio-
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signal processing, biomedical system, and pattern
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[37] A. Ghaffari et al., “Segmentation of Holter ECG waves Her current research interests include machine
via analysis of a discrete wavelet-derived multiple learning based bio-signal processing and cognitive
skewness-kurtosis based metric,” Ann Biomed Eng, vol. neuroscience.
38, no. 4, pp. 1497-1510, Jan. 2010, DOI:
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ECG fiducial points detection,” in Proc. IPAS, INCHAN YOUN received his M.S. degree in
Hammament, Tunisia, 2016, pp. 1-5. mechanical engineering from Pittsburgh
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pressure waveforms for detection of acute hypotensive Engineering from Tulane University. He is a
episodes: a simulation study using a risk scoring mode,” principal research scientist in Center for Bionics at
Comput Methods Biomech Biomed Engin, vol. 13, no. 2, Korea Institute of Science and Technology, Seoul,
pp. 197-213, Mar. 2009, DOI: Rep. of Korea.
10.1080/10255840903099711. His research interests include biomechanics,
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evaluation on standard databases,” IEEE T bio-Med Eng, interface (nerve signal interface and imaging
vol. 51, no. 4, pp. 570-581, Mar. 2004, DOI: interface), theragnosis (diagnosis of arthritis).
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