330

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING, VOL. BME-26, NO. 6, JUNE 1979

.1"I_ Francesca Demicheis received the Doctor degree in physics from the University of Turin,
,

Turin, Italy, and specialized in experimental

physics while working with Prof. E. Perucca
at the Politecnico of Turin, Turin, Italy.
In 1966 she became Associate Professor in
the Department of Experimental Physics,
Politecnico di Torino. A few years later she
became a Full Professor and is currently the
Director of the Department of Experimental
Physics, Politecnico di Torino. She is also
Research Coordinator for the Biophysics and Bioengineering Committee.
Her research interests have included nuclear physics while she was doing
research work at the Zurich Poiltechnic Graduate School, Zurich,
Switzerland and Ecole Normale, Paris, France. She has written approximately 80 articles for publication. Her present interests are in the field
of quantitative biomedical measurements.

Walter A. Giaretti was born in Turin, Italy in

1948. He received the Doctor degree in physics
from the University of Turin, Turin, Italy.
He was a Research Assistant in the Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin. From
1975 to 1976 he was a Research Associate in
the Department of Physiology and Biophysics,
Health Sciences Center, Temple University,
Philadephia, PA, working in the branch of automated image analysis cell biology. He is currently a Research Associate in the Department
of Physics, Politechnico di Torino, Turin, Italy, and his main research
interests are in the field of biomedical physics and engineering.

Maria Luisa Barberis received the M.D. degree

from the University of Turin, Turin, Italy, in
1967 where she specialized in plastic surgery
and general surgery.
From 1968 to 1976 she was an Assistant in
the Department of Plastic Surgery and Burn
Unit, Traumatological Center of Turin, Turin,
Italy. Since 1976 she has been a Senior Assistant with the Department of Plastic Surgery
and Burn Unit of the Traumatological Center.
She is the author of 15 scientific publications.
For many years she has been interested in biophysics, working with
Prof. F. Demichehis of the Politechnico di Torino, Turin, Italy.
Dr. Barberis is a member of several scientific societies.

Simon Teich-Alasia graduated from the University of Turin, Turin, Italy, in 1940.
Until 1952 he had been receiving experience
in general surgery. Currently he is a Clinical
Professor of Plastic Surgery at the University
of Turin, Turin, Italy. Since 1952 he has been

an Assistant in Plastic Surgery at the Institute

of Surgical Pathology, University of Turin.
3gG
G Since 1957 he has been Chief Assistant of
Plastic Surgery and since 1965 he has been
Chief Surgeon of the Department of Plastic
Surgery and Burn Unit, Traumatological Center, Turin, Italy. He is also
a Lecturer at the Post Graduate Medical School of the University of
Turin. He is the author of 75 scientific publications.
Dr. Teich-Alasia is a member of numerous foreign scientific societies.
He was President of the Italian Society of Plastic Surgery.

Homomorphic Analysis and Modeling of ECG Signals

IVATURI S. N. MURTHY, MANDAYAM R. RANGARAJ, STUDENT
AND A. K. GOYAL

Abstract-Homomorphic analysis and pole-zero modeling of electrocardiogram (ECG) signals are presented in this paper. Four typical ECG
signals are considered and deconvolved into their minimum and maximum phase components through cepstral filtering, with a view to study
the possibility of more efficient feature selection from the component
signals for diagnostic purposes. The comnplex cepstra of the signals are
linearly filtered to extract the basic wavelet and the excitation function. The ECG signals are, in general, mixed phase and hence, exponential weighting is done to aid deconvolution of the signals. The basic
wavelet for normal ECG approximates the action potential of the
muscle fiber of the heart and the excitation function corresponds to
the excitation pattern of the heart muscles during a cardiac cycle. The
Manuscript received August 6, 1977; revised December 15, 1978.

This work was supported by the Electronic Commission of the Government of India, New Delhi, India.
I. S. N. Murthy and M. R. Rangaraj are with the Department of
Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India.
K. J. Udupa is with the Department of Computer Science, State
University of New York, Buffalo, NY 14222.
A. K. Goyal is with the Indian Telephone Industries, Naini, Allahabad,
India.

MEMBER, IEEE,

K. JAYARAM UDUPA,

ECG signals and their components are pole-zero modeled and the
pole-zero pattern of the models can give a clue to classify the normal
and abnormal signals. Besides, storing only the parameters of the
model can result in a data reduction of more than 3: 1 for normal
signals sampled at a moderate 128 samples/s.

I. INTRODUCTION
THE gross patterns, or waves, observable in the surface
(ECG) have been studied extensively
from a pattern recognition view point for clinical diagnosisboth for morphological and rhythm analysis [1]- [4]. In the
time domain analysis, the amplitudes and durations of P, QRS,
and T complexes and the interwave intervals such as PR, QRS,
and QT, etc., form the feature vector and these have to be
measured from a given ECG for classification purposes. Classification and diagnostic techniques usually follow either
heuristic logic or more formal statistical methods and have
been quite diverse. However, detection of P, QRS, and T
waves and delimitation of their boundaries constitute a major

Telectrocardiogram

0018-9294/79/0600-0330$00.75 i 1979 IEEE

331

MURTHY et al.: HOMOMORPHIC ANALYSIS OF ECG SIGNALS

problem in the feature extraction stage. It is known that it is

almost impossible to overcome these problems and measure
accurately the parameters, especially when the given ECG is
corrupted by noise and other artifacts like the muscle tremor
etc. Consequently, even the best extraction and classification
procedures may fail to give good results, let alone the best. On
the other hand, frequency-domain techniques are less suitable
for analysis and diagnostic purposes due to lack of spectral
feature variability associated with pathological states. However, phase information was utilized [5] for classifying normal
and abnormal ECG. It appears from the literature that no
attempt is made to analyze ECG signals with the more recent
digital signal processing techniques like homomorphic filtering,
linear prediction, and cepstrum analysis, which are being currently used with a fairly large amount of success in a variety
of applications, like the analysis and modeling of speech and
seismic signals [6]- [11]. It appears that the technique of
homomorphic filtering is applicable to signals corrupted by
additive and convolved noise as well [10].
In the present work an attempt is made to model the electrical activity of the heart from a system-theoretic point of
view, both under normal and pathological conditions. The
ECG signal is considered as the impulse response of a black
box whose system function has to be pole-zero modeled. In
addition, the ECG signals are decomposed into component
signals by homomorphic filtering and these components are
pole-zero modeled. Furthermore, it is shown that if ECG
signals are considered as the output of a system excited by
an excitation sequence, then the system function can be
separated from its excitation by linear filtering the complex
cepstrum. The system function (to be called the basic wavelet
later), the excitation sequence, and the component signals
obtained through homomorphic filtering, give a clue to classify the ECG signals. Typical ECG signals of normal, premature ventricular contraction (PVC), and inverted T-waves
have been considered for analysis. It will be clear that a
classification scheme for clinical diagnosis can be evolved
based on the pole-zero pattern of the signal models. The
representation of the original ECG signal by its model, as
proposed here, provides an efficient method to the hitherto
related data handling problems of ECG, viz. data compression, storage, transmission, and simulation.
II. THEORY

The basic strategy for the analysis of speech signals using

homomorphic filtering as conceived originally [61- [8] was to
recover the vocal tract impulse response from the train of
excitation impulses with interspike spacing corresponding to
the pitch periods. The technique has been applied quite successfully also for the synthesis of speech by reversing the
operations of analysis. In a recent paper [91, the technique
has been applied to decompose a given signal into its minimum and maximum phase components. These, when convolved, give back the original signal and are amenable for
modeling by linear prediction. This method, called homomorphic prediction, thus retains both the generality of homomorphic processing and the efficiency of linear prediction for
modeling a signal. The technique is described below briefly,

D*

x(n)
L

-----

x(n)

;(n)

y(n)

----

(a)

x(n)i

+ ..inverse

LogoIZ

Transf

Trnsform

I.
I A

x(n)

(b)

n~ I

Transform

~~~~Exp II

Inverse
z

Transform

Iy(n)

(c)

Fig. 1. Homomorphic system for deconvolution. (a) Canonic form representation. (b) Characteristic system D*. (c) Characteristic system D*1.

highlighting the important steps involved before its application to the analysis of ECG signals is considered.
A. Homomorphic Deconvolution
The canonic form representation of a homomorphic system
for deconvolution is shown in Fig. l(a). The characteristic
system D*, shown in Fig. 1(b), has the property
D*[ax1(n) * bx2(n)] = aD* [x 1 (n)] + bD* [x2 (n)]
(1)
*
where a and b are scalars, denotes convolution, and D* is
the contemplated transformation. As can be seen from Fig.
l(b) the discrete-time sequence x(n) is first z-transformed to
obtain X(z) and this is further operated upon to get X(z)
and (n), the c,omplex logarithm of X(z), and the inverse
z-transform of X(z), respectively. x.(n), called the complex
cepstrum, is the output of the system D* and forms the input
to the linear system L and is given by

x(n) = 2L. flog [X(z)] zn-i dZ

(2)

where c is a circular contour given by z = ei', - r < co<ir.

The system D'1, shown in Fig. l(c), is the inverse of D* and
transforms from the additive space back to the convolution
space.
The important considerations in the computation of complex cepstrum are as follows:
1) In practical applications the input sequences are of finite
length. The region of convergence for the z-transform includes
the unit circle and this allows X(z) and the inverse z-transform
to be evaluated for z = e"'. Therefore, the z-transform and
its inverse are obtained using discrete Fourier transform pair.

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING, VOL. BME-26, NO. 6, JUNE 1979

332

2) The complex cepstrum x$(n) is real for real input sequences x(n); this implies that a) arg [X(z)] is an odd function of co and periodic with a period of 2ir, b) log [X(z)] is an
even function of X and periodic with a period of 2ir.
3) Phase Unwrapping: The complex logarithm in the integrand of (2) is a multivalued function. Furthermore, the
principal values of the argument make the phase curve discontinuous and this in turn makes log [X(z)] nonanalytic.
The phase has to be unwrapped by adding an appropriate
multiple of 27r to the principal value at each signal sample
to make the phase curve continuous. This will ensure the
analyticity of log [X(z)] in an annular region containing
contour c and the homomorphic system D* will be unique.
In other words, the phase is computed from the relation
arg [X(z)] = Arg [X(z) j27rk], k =0, 1, 2,
-7r < Arg [X(z)] <ir.
(3)
4) Linear Phase Component Removal: For a particular
input sequence x(n), X(z) may have a large number of zeros
at the origin which introduce a large shift in the phase. While
computing the complex cepstrum x(n) from (2), this linear
shift has to be removed from the phase before obtaining ^(n)
in order to retain the interesting information in the complex
cepstrum. This linear phase component removal, however,
causes a shift in the output sequence, the shift being proportional to the linear component removed. Hence, the resulting
sequence has to be repositioned to get the actual output.
Minimum and Maximum Phase Components: The characteristic system D* has converted, by (1), the convolved minimum
and maximum phase components xmin and xmax in its input
sequence x(n) into their sum in the complex cepstrum (n), at
its output, i.e.,
x(n) = xmin(n) + ^max(n).
()
Using the property that xmin(n) is 0 for n < 0 and xm4x(n) is
0 for n > 0, the linear system L in Fig. 1(b) is chosen to separate these two components at its output and is given by

n >0

n < 0.

F(z) t X(z)

where

x(n)z'.

(8)

Let

F(z)=
(5b)

(7)

B. Modeling
For modeling purposes, the two components Xmin and Xmax,
as obtained above, are considered to be the impulse responses
of a causal and an anticausal system, respectively. The problem of determining the system functions is variously known as
system modeling or system identification. Of the various
methods available, two methods, namely linear prediction
analysis-which is an all-pole modeling technique-and a direct
one due to Shanks [12] appear to be well suited for the
purpose. However, the latter method is considered in the
present work and is discussed briefly below.
The objective is to design a system function F(z) which
closely approximates X(z), the z-transform of the given
sequence. That is,

n =--o

(5a)

0<a< I

where at is chosen from a knowledge of the farthest zero of the

input sequence. xl(n) satisfies the above requirements and is
used for further analysis. However, it is not necessary to force
x(n) itself to be a minimum phase. Furthermore, it has been
observed that the roundoff errors involved in the weighting
procedure do not affect the complex cepstrum and the components recovered significantly.

X(z) = E

ro
n>0
=
=0
n
y(n) =4Xmax(n) i .2(0)
Cx(n)

X'(n) anx(n)

00

fon<0
9(n) min(n)=, 2(0) n = 0

(n)

Linear Filtering of Complex Cepstrum: Let the signal x(n)

be assumed to be the convolution of a system impulse response
called the basic wavelet and an input sequence called the excitation function. The contributions to the complex cepstrum
x(n) from these two components are well separated and can be
recovered by linearly filtering x(n), provided the input sequence is minimum phase. However, if this sequence is
nonminimum phase, it can be converted to a minimum phase
sequence by exponentially weighting x(n) as follows [10]:

+
BA(z)
B(z) =fo +fiZ+f2Z'

and

(9)
A(z)=ao +alz+a2z2 +* + aNzN.
Finally, operating the inverse system D-1 on 2min and Xmax
(10)
B(z)= 1 +blz+b2z2 + MZ+bMzM.
gives xmin and xmax, respectively, which when convolved give
back the original input sequence x(n), but for a phase shift as N and M are arbitrary numbers and fix the coefficients as and
indicated below:
bj, i = 1, *, N, = 1, *- *, M. For the impulse response f(n)
of the model to approximate x(n) in the minimum mean
= y(n) = xmin(n)
D-1
square sense for n >N, it can be shown that bi has to satisfy
D-1 [-ma(n)] =y(n) =x..X(n)
the following simultaneous equations:
and
M
xmin(n) * xm.(n) = x(n).
(6)
Ebioij = o, j =l, 'M
Thus x(n) is deconvolved into its minimum and maximum
phase components by homomorphic filtering.
where

l[min(n)I

MURTHY et al.: HOMOMORPHIC ANALYSIS OF ECG SIGNALS

23 *0

= E x(n - j) * x(n - i)
nij

16 0

n=N+l

K
= N x(n)
ni
n=N+l

(11)

* x(n - i),

L aijij = 0,

j=o

ny=EC(n0 n =0

i = O,

23-0

160

9- 0

99 0

2 .0

20

-5. *0

K being the signal length. After determining bi, using a

minimum mean square error criterion, it can be shown [12]
that ai has to satisfy the following set of equations:
N

333

-12
19 .01

-510

~~~~~-12.0

1.0

20

40

60

-190O

20

40

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

60

-, N

i)C(n- j)

(12)

=x(n)C(n-i)

.n =o

where C(n), n = 0, 1,-* , K are obtained from I /B(z) by long

division. That is,
-

B(Z = C(O) + C(l)z +. + C(K)ZK.

B(z)

III. APPLICATION TO ECG ANALYSIS

The ultimate goal in the analysis of ECG signals as in the
case of any other biosignal is to develop an accurate and
reliable method for clinical diagnosis. Any such method
should give the diagnostic result quickly and preferably on-line,
besides meeting several other desirable features such as cost
effectiveness. The aim here is not to enumerate such methods;
however the interested reader may refer to a recent review
article [13] on the subject. There are several computer
algorithms currently in use for the clinical diagnosis of the
ECG; the success of even the best schemes seems to be somewhat limited. In what follows, the homomorphic analysis
and the modeling techniques described previously have been
applied to the analysis of typical ECG signals. At the end of
the section it becomes obvious that the method not only
provides a means for the analysis and diagnosis of these
signals, but also provides data reduction for storage, transmission, and simulation purposes.
A. Homomorphic Analysis
Four typical ECG signals-a normal, an inverted T, and two
types of ventricular premature beats-are considered as running
examples for purposes of illustration. These signals are shown
in Fig. 2(a)-(d), respectively. The X- and Y-scales chosen for
the plots do not correspond to the actual signal amplitudes
and durations, but the signals are plotted to some convenient
scale on the computer. The complex cepstra for these signals
are computed from (2) and are shown in Fig. 3. Though the
signals in Fig. 2(a) and (b) closely resemble each other, their
complex cepstra are different from each other and in the case
of PVC's, this difference is more pronounced. The minimum
and maximum phase components for the four signals are
computed from their complex cepstra using (5) and (6) and
are shown in Fig. 4. It may be noted that the convolution of

Fig. 2. Typical ECG signals. (a) NormaL (b) Inverted T. (c) PVC1.
(d) PVC2.

a minimum component with its maximum counterpart will

result in the original signal, but for a time shift. While one
cannot easily distinguish the original signals in Fig. 2(a) and
(b), it is relatively easy to classify them from a study of the
component signals in Fig. 4(a) and (c) and Fig. 4(b) and (d),
their amplitudes, waveshapes, and intervals. From the pattern
recognition point of view, the minimum components have
better discriminatory features than their maximum counterparts, as for example the presence of an additional knee in
Fig. 4(c) distinguishes it from the normal component in
Fig. 4(a).
The log magnitude spectra of the component signals in Fig.
4(a)-(d), shown in Fig. 4(k)-(n), respectively, reveal some
interesting points. It is known that [13] the features measured on the magnitude spectra of direct ECG signals are
largely unsuitable for purposes of classification because of
the lack of spectral variability associated with pathological
states. On the other hand, from Fig. 4(k)-(n) and Fig. 4(p)-(s)
it is clear that the features measured on the spectra of the
component signals could be quite useful because of the wide
spectral variability. It may also be noted that the dips in the
magnitude spectrum of the maximum components correspond
to the peaks in that of the minimum components, as it should
be, from the fact that the two components when convolved
give the original signal.
It has been found that ECG signals under normal and pathological conditions are in general mixed phase with a large linear
phase component, signifying the presence of a number of
zeros at the origin in the z-plane. However, it is interesting to
note that if the maximum phase component is an impulse, it
signifies that the signal itself is the minimum component.
This is nearly true in the case of PVC2 and the minimum component is almost the same as the signal, but for an inversion

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING, VOL. BME-26, NO. 6, JUNE 1979

334

6-3r

3-44r

-3-6

-90 -50 -10 10

50

90

-0 7

-90 -50 -10 10

272 F

50

90

50

90

(b)

(a)
2*14F

2-t44

-90 -50 -10 10

50

-90 -50 -10 10

90

(c)

(d)

(a)

(b)

Fig. 3. Complex cepstra for signals in Fig. 2. (a) Normal. (b) Inverted T. (c) PVC1. (d) PVC2.

16r

31

21

80
(c)

-40

-80

(d)

Fig. 4. (a)-(h) component signals. (a), (c), (e), and (g) are minimum components of signals in Fig. 2(a)-(d). (b), (d), (f),
and (h) are maximum components of signals in Fig. 2(a)-(d). (k), (1), (m), and (n) are log magnitude spectra of signals in
Fig. 4(a)-(d). (p), (q), (r), and (s) are phase spectra of the signals in Fig. 4(a)-(d).

335

MURTHY et al.: HOMOMORPHIC ANALYSIS OF ECG SIGNALS

45r

13

I
-0 8

40

-0.9

80

(e)

-80

(f)

08i

80

8.2

2.2-

5. 1

0.8<

-2

( m)

-40

12 0

52

7L
0

~~~~~~~~~~~I
1 n)

(h)

(g)

292r

3.!

-40

120

120

v k)

2.8-

0-

02.8L

/120

( p)

4. 3L
0

120
( r)

q)

Fig. 4. (continued).

caused by the removal of a large initial phase 0 = n7r, where n

is odd, during the computation of complex cepstrum.
In order to recover the basic wavelet, the ECG signal has been
subjected to an appropriate exponential weighting as explained
earlier (Linear Filtering of Complex Cepstrum Section). The
resulting complex cepstra are shown in Fig. 5(a)-(d) and the
weighting coefficient used in each case is indicated therein.
By comparing the cepstra in Figs. 3 and 5 it can be seen that
the exponential weighting of the signal has resulted in separation of the contributions of the basic wavelet and excitation

function. This weighting has converted the signal also into

minimum phase, which however need not always be true.
These are then low-pass filtered with a window of 20 samples
width, centered at the origin, followed by further processing
with system D-1. This operation gives the basic wavelets
shown in Fig. 6(a)-(d). It is interesting to note that the
shape of the basic wavelets for the normal and inverted Tare
identical and resembles that of an action potential generated
in the muscle fibers of the heart. A similar processing after
high-pass filtering of the complex cepstra gives the excitation

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING, VOL. BME-26, NO. 6, JUNE 1979

336

1 36

-0-36

-10

10

50

90

-90

-50

-10

10

50

90

10

50

80

(a)

(b)

(c)

041

F- 71

-50

1-36

~~~I

90

-50

-90

-10
(d)

a. (a) Normal a- 0.76. (b) Inverted T

0.76. (c) PVCl =0.91. (d) PVC2 a = 0.98.

Fig. 5. Complex cepstra of the signals in Fig. 2 exponentially weighted with

=

functions as shown in Fig. 7(a)-(d). These functions correspond to the excitation pattern that takes place in the heart
muscles during the cardiac cycle. For example, in the case of
normal and inverted T, this function consists of two excitation
impulses, one corresponding to the onset of the QRS complex
(ventricular contraction) and the other corresponding to the

onset of T-wave (ventricular repolarization). This agrees with

the physiological findings that ventricular depolarization and

repolarization are the two most important events during the
cardiac cycle. Interestingly the second impulse is absent in
the case of PVC's where ventricular contraction is premature
and the repolarization event is masked by the prominent

MURTHY et al.: HOMOMORPHIC ANALYSIS OF ECG SIGNALS

337

1 01

-0-02 !I '-I

40

101t

-.120

80

(a)

40

80

120

(b)

D-26

PVC i

40

0 22

40

(c)

160

200

240

160

200

240

PVC2

0.0S

00c

120

80

--l

80

11

(d)
Fig. 6. (a)-(d) Basic wavelets recovered by low-pass filtering the complex cepstra of Fig. 5(a)-(d), with a window w = 20 samples centered
at the origin.

premature contraction. Thus the excitation function consists

of a single impulse corresponding to the prominent premature

beat.
An actual ECG, recorded from a subject and its filtered version (low-pass sixth-order Butterworth with 40 Hz cutoff) are
shown in Fig. 8(a). The complex cepstrum and the minimum,
maximum phase components of the filtered signal shown in
Fig. 8(b) and (c) are in good agreement with those of the
normal signal in Fig. 2(a). It may be noted further that
the results of linear flltering of the exponentially weighted
(a = 0.99) complex cepstrum [see Fig. 8(d)] shown in Fig.
8(e) resemble those in Figs. 6(a) and 7(a). The opposite
polarity of the impulses in the excitation sequence of Fig.
8(e) may be attributed to the opposite nature of the depolarization and repolarization events. Similar analysis on
the unfiltered signal of Fig. 8(a) gave similar results and they
are not included here.

Modeling
The original ECG signals in Fig. 2 and the minimum and
maximum phase components in Fig. 4 are pole-zero modeled
by Shanks' method explained previously. The model outputs
are shown in Figs. 9 and 10. To have a satisfactory'fit between the normal and inverted T signals and their respective
models, it has been found necessary to use a minimum 20-pole
20-zero system. However, signals under pathological conditions, whether complex or simple in waveshape as in PVC1 or
PVC2, require higher order models, almost twice that of
the normal systenm In fact, system orders less than 40-pole
40-zero and 35-pole 35-zero were found [141 to be very unsatisfactory for PVC1 and PVC2. Modeling a mimum
component was found to be in general more involved than
modeling its maximum counterpart to obtain the same degree
of match between the signal and its model [14]. Also, the
minimum components of the PVC's could be modeled more
B.

338

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING, VOL. BME-26, NO. 6, JUNE 1979

i r
1.0c1-

(a) NORMAL

V .4L,

40

80

120

*I

160

200

160

200

240

1-00,

(b) INVERTED T
-1- 11V
40

1.00

.,L"

80

120

240

( C) P V C 1

1'r

40

8o

-v

120

160

200

240

(d) P V C 2

-0.-03 1I
--

' ^ .

40

80

120

'iI

160

'-*AI

200

-A

'

240

Fig. 7. Excitation function obtained by high-pass filtering the complex cepstra of Fig. 5(a)-(d).

easily: than the normal and inverted T components. The pole- seen that the zeros of the inverted Tare located close to those
zero plots of the models of the signals in Fig. 2(a), (b), and (d) of the normal and this is not true in the case of poles. While
are shown in Fig. 9(e) and (f), respectively. With the previous there is a shift between the locations of normal and inverted
T
definition of X(z) = Z=_,x(n)zn, the poles for a stable
model poles, a major difference to be noted is that there are
system lie outside the unit circle. From Fig. 9(e) it may be no poles in the inverted T case corresponding to the poles at

339

MURTHY et a!.: HOMOMORPHIC ANALYSIS OF ECG SIGNALS

217

217

912

( i ) Unfiltered

912

( ii) Filtered

(a)
2.19

-2.4 l3

-1024

11.8

1024

(b)

1.88

2.08
-200

(c)
Fig. 8. Results of analysis of the actual normal ECG data. (a) ECG signal (i) unfiltered and (ii) filtered. (b) Complex
cepstrum. (c) Minimum and maximum components. (d) Complex cepstrum with an exponential weighting a = 0.99.
(e) Basic wavelet and excitation function.

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING, VOL. BME-26, NO. 6, JUNE 1979

340

-1.63

512

- 512

(d)

0.2

( ) Basic wavelet

1.0

-0.37

1024
512

512

( ii ) Excitation sequence

(e)
Fig. 8. (continued).
2023

20 26

20
40
(a) NORMAL M-N=2O

(c) PVC 1

M=N=40

60

1.71

20
40
( b) INVERTED T M-N=20

(d)

60

PVC 2 M=N=36

Fig. 9. M-pole N-zero models of signals in Fig. 2. (a) Normal. (b) Inverted T. (c) PVC1. (d) PVC2. (c) Pole-zero plot of
normal and inverted T models. (f) Pole-zero plot of PVC2 model.

MURTHY et al.: HOMOMORPHIC ANALYSIS OF ECG SIGNALS

341
x

'

y
y

NORMAL X-POLE
o-ZERO
INVERTED T Y-POLE
D-ZERO

y
y

(e)

xxx

XX

X -POLE

o-ZERO

x
x

x
0

XOtX

XX

(f)
Fig. 9. (continued).
1 and z = -2 of the normal model.
However, there is a
conjugate pole pair in the inverted T model and these have
no matching poles in the normal model.
Effect of movement of poles and zeros of the normal ECG
model on its response has been studied in an attempt to derive
the signals of pathologic states. Shifting of zeros z1 and Z2
in Fig. 1l(a) to zl and z2 outside the unit circle caused a
depression of S-T segment in the model response as shown
in Fig. 1 l(b). The model of this signal has a pole-zero plot

z=

which is identical to that of the normal model, but for poles

pi and P'2 and zeros z3 and Z4 which do not coincide with
Pi and P2 and Z3 and Z4 of the normal model. In addition,
z4 and z' have changed to real values z4 and z2. Movement
of z1 and z2 of the normal system to z' and z2 also resulted
in a S-T segment depression as shown in Fig. 1 1(c). Incorporating additional changes by shifting Pl, P2, Z3, and Z4 to pL,
P2, Z3, and z4, respectively, resulted in the response shown in
Fig. 11(d) which still shows S-T segment depression. This

342

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING, VOL. BME-26, NO. 6, JUNE 1979

2332r

ll

52

-40

-BO

(a) M=12

(c)

N_B

( b ) M=10

M=6 N=6

N-10

(d) M=10 N-10

1-099

40
(e) M=10 N=10

( t) M=10 N=10

su

40

M=10
i(g 10

878r

-a.

-4u

N41.
IO.
N-zero
model of signals in Fig. 4.
Fig.
M-pole
N-10

shows that the placement of zeros in the vicinity of 1 +iO in

the z-plane plays a dominant role in determining the nature
of the S-T segment in the model response. The scattering of
I
I
IP
Pi, P2, Z3, and z4 from Pi, P2, Z3, and Z4 may be attributed
to the computational approximations involved in modeling.
The above analysis was carried out on a number of signals
obtained from normal subjects. For QRS complexes with
predominant R and S waves [see Fig. 2(a)] it has been observed
in general that outward movement of zeros located near 1 + jo
results in S-T segment depression.

(h ) M=10

IV. CONCLUSIONS
Homomorphic analysis and modeling of typical ECG signals
of normal, inverted T-wave, and premature ventricular contractions have been considered in this paper. The ECG signals
have been decomposed into their minimum and maximum
phase components through homomorphic filtering. It has
been found that feature selection for diagnostic purposes
could be more efficient and less ambiguous, both in the time
and spectral domains of the component signals, than by conventional methods. ECG signals in general are seen to be

343

MURTHY et al.: HOMOMORPHIC ANALYSIS OF ECG SIGNALS

If

POLE OF NORMAL ECG MODEL

ZEROOF NORMAL ECG MODEL
X POLE OF S-T DEPRESSION
0 ZERO OF S-T DEPRESSION
* X AND Y CONCUR
e 0 AND 0 CONCUR

Y
a

\
\

-o-Y
3

*
*

(a)
*

8.3

7.8 -

-6.6

56

0
( b)

z-z;' Z2-z'
3.5-

3.45

-6.3

56

0
c)

zi-z/, Z2-zl

56

z2-2fI1IZ' z-z
Z3 Z3 ' Z4 Z4
Z2 2' Ip-P'
-P2
2
1
'2
1I
Fig. 11. S-T depression from pole-zero movements. (a) Pole-zero plots for normal and S-T depression models. (b) S-T
depression from zero movements zI - Z4, Z2 - Z2. (c) S-T depression from zero movements z -4, Z2 - Z2. (d) S-T
depression from pole-zero movements z1 -4, Z2 - '2, Z3 - z3, z4 - Z4, Pi - P', P2 - P2Cd

344

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON BIOMEDICAL

mixed phase with a large linear phase component. The complex cepstra of the exponentially weighted ECG signals have

linearly filtered to obtain the basic wavelets and excitation functions. It has been found that the basic wavelet of
the normal ECG signal closely approximates the action potential spike in the cardiac muscle fibers and the excitation function corresponds to the excitation pattern that takes place in
been

the heart muscles during the cardiac cycle.

The four typical signals and their components have been
pole-zero modeled by Shanks' method. It has been found
that signals of pathological conditions require models of
higher order than that of normal signals for identical match
between the signal and its model. The pole-zero patterns of
the models reveal interesting points and could form a clue to
the classification of nQrmal and abnormal signals. The proposed model also serves to solve the data handling problem.
For example, for normal signals sampled at a moderate rate
of 128 Hz, the model can achieve a data reduction of more
than 3:1.

AC KNOWLEDGMENT

The authors wish to thank Prof. K. S. Prabhu, Chairman of

the Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of
Science, for his constant encouragement.
REFERENCES
H.
[1] V. Pipberger, "Computer analysis of electrocardiogram," in
Computers in Biomedical Research, vol. 1, R. W. Stacy and B. D.
Waxman, Eds. New York: Academic, 1965, pp. 377-407.
[2] A. L. Weihrer, J. R. Whiteman, A. Zimmerman, and C. A. Caceres,
"Computer programs for an automated electrocardiographic
system," in Clinical Electrocardiography and Computers, C. A.
Caceres and L. S. Dreifus, Eds. New York: Academic, 1970,
pp. 81-108.
[3] R. E. Bonner et al., "Computer diagnosis of electrocardiograms,"
Adv. Sys. Develop. Div., IBM Corp., Yorktown Hts., NY, Tech.
Rep. 17-223.
[4] F. M. Nolle, "ARGUS-A clinical computer system for monitoring electrocardiographic rhythms," D.Sc. dissertation, Washington Univ., St. Louis, MO, 1972.
[5] P. G. Amazeen, R. L. Moruzzi and C. L. Feldman, "Phase detection of R-waves in noisy electrocardiograms," IEEE Trans.
Biomed. Eng., vol. BME-19, pp. 63-66, Jan. 1972.
[6] A. V. Oppenheim, "Speech analysis-synthesis system based on
homomorphic filtering," J. Acoust. Soc. Amer., vol. 45, pp.
459-462, 1969.
[71 A. V. Oppenheim and R. W. Schafer, "Homomorphic analysis of
speech," IEEE Trans. Audio Electroacoust., vol. AU-16, pp.
221-226, June 1968.
[8] R. C. Kemerait and D. G. Childers, "Signal detection and extraction by cepstrum techniques," IEEE Trans. Inforn. Theory, vol.
IT-18, pp. 745-759, Nov. 1972.
[9] A. V. Oppenheim, G. E. Kopec, and J. M. Tribolet, "Signal
analysis by homomorphic prediction," IEEE Trans. Acoust.,
Speech, and Signal Processing, vol. ASSP-24, pp. 327-332,
Aug. 1976.
[10] T. J. Ulrych, "Application of homomorphic deconvolution to
seismology," Geophysics, vol. 36, pp. 650-660, Aug. 1971.
[11] D. G. Childers et al., "The cepstrum: A guide to processing,"
Proc. IEEE, voL 65, pp. 1428-1443, Oct. 1977.
[12] J. L. Shanks, "Recursion filters for digital processing," Geophysics, voL32, pp. 33-51, Feb. 1967.
[13] J. R. Cox, Jr., F. M. Nolle, and R. M. Arthur, "Digital analysis
of electroencephalogram, the blood pressure wave and the electrocardiogram," Proc. IEEE, vol. 60, pp. 1137-1164, Oct. 1972.
[14] M. R. Rangaraj, K. J. Udupa, I. S. N. Murthy, A. K. Goyal, and

Prabhu, "Signal processing techniques applied to ECG

analysis," Biomed. Lab., Dept. Elec. Eng., Indian Inst. Sei.,
Bangalore, India, Tech. Rep. TR-77, Jan. 1977.
K. S.

ENGINEERING, VOL. BME-26, NO. 6, JUNE 1979

Ivaturi S. N. Murthy was born in Atchanta

Vemavaram, Andhra Pradesh, India. He received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. (Tech.) degrees in
5
1956 and 1961, respectively, and the Ph.D.
degree in control theory in 1968 from the
Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India.
< ~He worked at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India, during 1962-1964. He
then joined the Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore,
where he was a Senior Research Fellow of the
University Grants Commission during 1965-1968. He is currently an
Assistant Professor in Electrical Engineering and at the School of Automation, Indian Institute of Science. He is presently interested in the
areas of pattern recognition and learning applied to biological systems
and biocybernetics systems. He has published in various international
journals.
il l

Mandayam R. Rangaraj (S'78) was born in Mysore, India on July 21, 1955. He received the
B.E. degree in electronics and communication
with distinction from P.E.S. College of Engineering, Mandya, India, affiliated with the
University of Mysore, Mysore, India. He is
compltn the Ph.D. program at the Indian
Institute of Science, Bangalore, India.
His research interests include biomedical
signal processing and pattern recognition.

KI Jayaram Udupa received the B.E. degree in

electronics and communication engineering
from the University of Mysore, Mysore, India,
in 1972 and the Ph.D. degree in pattern recognition from the School of Automation, Indian
Institute of Science, Bangalore, India, in 1976.
From 1976 to 1978 he was a Scientific Officer in the Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Science. Since September 1978 he has been with the Medical Image
Processing Group, Department of Computer
Science, State University of New York, Buffalo, as a Research Assistant
Professor. His research interests include biomedical signal processing,
biomedical picture analyses, and artificial intelligence.

A. K. Goyal was born in Maler Kotla, India on

July 2, 1951. He received the M.S. degree in
physics (with first rank) from Panjabi University, Patiala, India in 1970 and the M.S. degree
in electronics (with first rank) from the Birla
Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani,
Indi in 1975.
From 1970 to 1973 he served as a Lecturer
with the Vaish Technical Institute, Rohtak,
India and later with the Kamla Nehru College,
Jatauli, India. From 1975 to 1976 he was on
the Teaching Faculty of the Biria Institute of Technology and Science.
From 1976 to 1977 he was with the Bioengineering Group, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India and is currently with the ComputerAided Design Group, Indian Telephone Industries Limited, Naini,
Allahabad, India. His research interests include surface acoustic wave
devices and digital signal processing.