• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.137-144
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• 2004

ECG signals are often contaminated with high-frequency noise such as muscle artifact, power line interference, and others. In the ECG signal processing, especially during a pre-processing stage, numerous noise removal techniques have been used to reduce these high-frequency noise without much distorting the original signal. This paper proposes a new type of digital filter with a continuously variable cutoff frequency to improve the signal quality This filter consists of a cutoff frequency controller (CFC) and variable cutoff frequency lowpass filter (VCF-LPF). From the noisy input ECG signal, CFC produces a cutoff frequency control signal using the signal slew rate. We implemented VCF-LPF based on two new filter design methods called convex combination filter (CCF) and weight interpolation fille. (WIF). These two methods allow us to change the cutoff frequency of a lowpass filter In an arbitrary fine step. VCF-LPF shows an excellent noise reduction capability for the entire time segment of ECG excluding the rising and falling edge of a very sharp QRS complex. We found VCF-LPF very useful and practical for better signal visualization and probably for better ECG interpretation. We expect this new digital filter will find its applications especially in a home health management system where the measured ECG signals are easily contaminated with high-frequency noises .