Abstract:

This research gives an overview about the Filtering of power line interference. It is very meaningful in for the
measurement of biomedical events recording, particularly in the case of recording signals as weak as the ECG.
The available filters for power line interference are either need a reference channel or regard require the
frequency as to be fixed value such as 50/60Hz. Methods of noise reduction have decisive influence on
performance of all electro-cardio-graphic (ECG) signal processing systems. This work deals with problems of
power line interference reduction. The typical ECG has the frequency ranges are centered on0.5 Hz to 100Hz.
Some analogue and digital approaches to for solving this problem are presented and its their properties,
advantages and disadvantages are shown. The basic ECG has the frequency range from .5Hz to 100Hz.

Index Terms- ECG (Electrocardiogram), IIR (Infinite impulse response), FIR (finite impulse response), Power
Line Interface (PLI), Noise Reduction.

Outlines:
I-Introduction

A- The definition of ECG Signal.

B- Power Line Interface (PLI).

C- Usage of the Notch FIR filter.

II-PLI Reduction Methods

A- FIR notch filter.

B- IIR notch filter.

III- PLI Reduction by FIR Notch Filter

A-Noise Canceller.

B-Notch FIR filter Design.

VI-Results and discussions

V-Conclusion

Appendix: MATLAP codes

I-Introduction

The function of the heart is to contract rhythmically and pump blood to the lungs for oxygenation and

then pump this oxygenated blood into the general circulation []. This perfect rhythm is continuously maintained

and signaled by the spread of electrical signals generated by the heart pacemaker, the Sinoatrial (SA) node.

Detecting such electrical activity of the heart can help identify many heart disorders. This is the main concept

behind using an ECG (Electrocardiogram), that is to trace tracing the electrical activity of the heart. By

measuring and tracing the potential difference between two points on the outer surface of the body we obtain

the simplest ECG chart. Two typical measuring points are between left arm and the right arm. By defining two

points and setting up conventional positive direction for measuring the voltage what created is called a ‘Lead

The first phase of cardiac muscle activation is the stimulation of the right and left atria by an electrical

signal generated from SA node. This phase appears as the P-wave on the ECG chart. The electrical signal

generated, originally generated by the SA node, then spreads through the Atrioventricular node (AV) Junction,

the bundle of HIS, and the Purkinje fibers to finally reach and stimulate the ventricles. The spread of electrical

signal through ventricles causes ventricular contraction. The phase of ventricular contraction appears as the

characteristic QRS complex on ECG chart. Finally, with the relaxation of two ventricles, a depolarization signal

is generated and appears as the T-wave on ECG chart.

Signal processing, in general, has a rich history, and its importance is evident in such
diverse fields as biomedical engineering, acoustics, Sonar, radar, Seismology, speech communication,
data communication, nuclear science, and many others. In many applications, for example,
in EEG (define EEG?) and ECG analysis or speech processing, it can be used to extract some characteristic

parameters []. AlternativelyIn addition, to remove interference, such as noise, from the signal or to modify the

signal to present it in a form this is more easily interpreted by an expert.

The field of biomedical signal analysis or processing has advanced to the stage of practical application

of signal processing and pattern analysis techniques foe for efficient and improved noninvasive diagnosis,

online monitoring of critical patients, and rehabilitation and sensory aids for the handicapped []. Techniques
 developed by engineers are gaining wider acceptance by practicing clinicians, and the role of engineering in

diagnosis and treatment is gaining much–observed respect. The major strength in the application of computers

in biomedical signal analysis lies in the potential use of signal processing and modeling technique for the

quantitative or the objective analysis. Analysis of signals by human observers is almost always accompanied by

perceptual limitations, inter-personal variations, errors caused by fatigue, errors caused by the very low rate of

incidence of certain sign of abnormality, environmental distortions, and so on.

ECG SIGNAL PRE PROCESSING ECG preprocessing process of the ECG signal before extract the

information, Considerable attention has been paid to mean the design of filters for the purpose of removing

power line interference [1], a most conmen interface in ECG signal, filtering problem being much more

difficult to handle because of the substantial spectral overlap between the ECG and power line interface, the

filtering techniques are primarily used for preprocessing of the signal and have as such been implemented in a

wide variety of systems for ECG analysis

.analysis

A-The definition of ECG Signal :-

An electrocardiogram (ECG) or (EKG) is the graphical recording of the electrical activity of the

heart in medical to test or detect cardiac (heart) abnormalities by measuring the electrical activity generated by

the of the heart muscle and displays this data as a trace on a screen or on paper. This data is then interpreted by a

medical practitioner. The machine that records the patient’s ECG is called an electrocardiograph.

The establishment of the clinical electrocardiograph (ECG) by the Dutch physician willem Einthoven in

1903 []marked the beginning of a new era in medical diagnostic techniques, including the entry of electronics in

the health care. Since then, electronics, and subsequently computers, have become integral components of

biomedical signal analysis system, performing variety of tasks from data acquisition and preprocessing for

removal of artifacts to feature extraction and interpretation

The first wave part in ECG is called the P wave which is generated due to electrical activity of atria.

Duration of atria should not be more than 0.11 seconds and amplitude should not be more than 3mm. The PR
 interval is measured from the beginning of the P wave to the beginning of the QRS complex. The normal

duration for this is 0.12-0.20 seconds. The most important complex in the electrocardiogram is the QRS which

shows electrical activities of ventricles The duration (QRS interval) which is measured from the beginning of

the QRS complex to it's end is 0.05 to 0.10 seconds. The S-T segment follows thefollows the QRS complex
The duration of S-T segment is near approximately about 0.08 seconds. FinallyFinally, T wave represent

repolarization of ventricles. The height of T wave should not be greater than 5 mm

Electrocardiogram (ECG) is an important clinical tool for investigating the activities of heart,

which is one of the signals of vitality. Interpretation of these details allows diagnosis of a wide range of heart

conditions. These conditions can vary from minor to life threatening. A typical ECG tracing of a normal

heartbeat (or cardiac cycle) consists of a P wave, a QRS complex, and a T wave as shown in . Figure1 shows :

Figure1: ECG signal

 Artifactual Artifacts in ECG signals arise from several internal and external sources. That Mmeans

Electro-cardio-graphic ECG signals (ECG) may be corrupted by various kinds of noise. Typical examples are

[]:

1. Power line interference.

2. Electrode contact noise.

3. Motion artifacts.

4. Muscle contraction.

5. Base line drift.

6. Instrumentation noise generated by electronic devices.

7. Electrosurgical noise. From various artifacts contaminate electrocardiogram (ECG) recording,

the The most common artifact is are the power line interference and baseline drift.

B- Power Line Interface (PLI)

The power line interference of 50/60 Hz is the source of interference and it corrupt the recordings of

Electrocardiogram (ECG) which are extremely important for the diagnosis of patients. The interference is

caused by:

a. Electromagnetic interference by power line

b. electromagnetic field (EMF) by the machinery which is placed nearby. The signal component holds

harmonics with different amplitude and frequency. The harmonics frequency is integral multiple of

fundamental frequency such as 50Hz..Hz.

c. Stray effect of the alternating current fields due to loops in the cables

d. Improper grounding of ECG machine or the patient.

e. Electrical equipments such as air conditioner, elevators and X-ray units draw heavy power line

current, which induce 50 Hz signals in the input circuits of the ECG machine.

ECG signal has been a major diagnostic tool for the cardiologists. and ECG signal providesIt provides

almost all the information about electrical activity of the heart. So careAccordingly, a care should be taken

while doing the ECG filtering, such that the desired information, is not distorted or altered in any way.
Although many methods have been suggested by researchers to reduce the Powerline noise yet filtering

introduces unacceptable ringing effect, especially after the QRS complexes.

Fig.2 60 Hz Power Line Interference

Many Researchers [] have worked on the removal of the power line interference in the

ECG signal

The noise from electric power system is a major source of noise during the recording or monitoring of

ECG. Different noises have different frequencies. The noise with low frequency is being problem with ECG

signal as well as some time high frequency noises also interfere ECG, like mobile phone. If the physical or

mathematical variable changes rapidly then it can becontains a high frequency components and if it changes

slowly then it would be a low frequency signal. If the variable does not change at all then it is said that it has

zero frequency. Most of the electronic devices such as ECG, transmitter, receiver, computer, etc get power from

power line. The 50 Hz alternative current (AC) is reduced in voltage, rectified and then filter to obtain low

voltage direct current (DC). This is used to give power to those electronic devices.

There is various type of method to extract the ECG parameters from the Noisy ECG signal;

very first need is analysis of ECG signal to get which type of noise mesh up with the signal, and of course

power line interface reduction is one of thenthem. The most commonly encountered periodic artifact in

biomedical signals is the power line interference at 50 Hz or 60 Hz. If the power-line waveform is not a pure

sinusoid due to distortions or clipping, then harmonics of the fundamental frequency could also appear.

Harmonics will also appear if the interference is a periodic waveform that is not a pure sinusoid. Power-line

interference may be difficult to detect visually in signals having nonspecific waveforms such as the PCG

(Define the PCG) or EMG, however, the interference is easily visible if present on well-defined signal

waveforms such as the ECG pulse signals

 For the a meaningful and accurate detection, steps have to be taken to filter out or discard all these noise

sources. Analog filters help in dealing with these problems; however, they may introduce nonlinear phase

shifts, skewing the signal. Also, the instrumentation depends on resistance, temperature, and design, which also

may introduce more error. With more recent technology, Digital filters are now capable of being implemented

offering more advantages over the analog one. Digital filters are more precise due to a lack of instrumentation.

The work on design and implementation of Digital filter on the ECG signal is in progress in the different part of

the world.

Many researchers have worked on development of method for reduction of noise in ECG signal. Choy

TT, Leung P M. have used 50 Hz notch filters for the real time application on the ECG signal it is found that

filter was capable of filtering noise by 40dB.with bandwidth of 4Hz and causes the attenuation in the QRS

complex[3]. McManus CD, Neubert KD and Cramer E have surveyed different digital filter method like notch

filters, adaptive filters and globally derived filters their performances are compared on artificial

Some researchers have used analog filters for removal of the power line interference. Hejjel L, used the

analog digital notch filter for the reduction of the power line interference in the ECG signal for the heart rate

variability analysis. The investigation addressed the analysis of the effects of AC interference and its filtering

on the precision and accuracy of heart rate detection. Artificial ECG recordings with predefined parameters

were simulated by a computer and a data acquisition card, consecutively filtered by an analog notch filter. It is

found that the filtering of uncorrupted ECG signals does not result in heart rate period deviations. Power-line

interference contamination proportionally alters the accuracy of representative point detection. Literature

encouraged using the digital notch filter for the power line contamination

There are mainly five approaches to remove noise and interference, but in our algorithm for

performance analysis,

(1) Frequency-domain filtering (Notch Filter)

(2) Optimal (Wiener) filtering,

(3) Adaptive filtering

we take only the first type to study it in this search

C-Usage of FIR Notch filter

Notch filters, also commonly referred to as band-stop or band-rejection filters, are designed to

transmit most wavelengths with little intensity loss while attenuating light within a specific wavelength range

(the stop band) to a very low level. They are essentially the inverse of bandpass filters, which offer high in-

band transmission and high out-of-band rejection so as to only transmit light within a small wavelength range.

Notch filters are useful in applications where one needs to block light from a laser. For instance, to

obtain good signal-to-noise ratios in Raman spectroscopy experiments, it is critical that light from the pump

laser be blocked. This is achieved by placing a notch filter in the detection channel of the setup. In addition to

spectroscopy, notch filters are commonly used in laser-based fluorescence instrumentation and biomedical laser

systems.

The digital filters are divided into two basic types, Finite Impulse Response (FIR) and Infinite

Impulse Response (IIR) filters. which are known as non recursivenon-recursive and recursive filters

FIR filter was chosen since it is simple and stable. The choice between the filter type (recursive

and non recursivenon-recursive) is done due to the computational property and the storage required for the

implementation

The term FIR abbreviation is “Finite Impulse Response” and it is one of two main types of digital

filters used in DSP applications. Filters are signal conditioners and function of each filter is, it allows an AC

components and blocks DC components. The best example of the filter is a phone line, which acts as a filter.

Because, it limits frequencies to a rage significantly smaller than the range of human beings can hear

frequencies.

FIR filters are particularly useful for applications where exact linear phase response is required.

The FIR filter is gen-erally implemented in a non-recursive way which guaran-tees a stable filter. FIR filter

using different windows are preferred due to ease of design and simplicity of programming .programming.
 The applications of FIR filters mainly involve in digital communications in the intermediate frequency

stages of the receiver. For instance, a digital radio receives and converts the analog signal to the intermediate

frequency and then converts it to digital using with a digital to analog converter. Then uses the finite impulse

response to choose the preferred frequency. It is used in software radio, that permits easily adaptable filters

with good rejection and without changing

usually, filters are defined by their responses to the separate frequency components that found the i/p

signal The responses of the filters a classified into three types based on the frequencies such as stop band, pass

band and transition band. The response of the passband is the filter’s effect on frequency components that are

delivered through mostly unaffected.

Frequencies in a filter’s stopband are, by difference, highly reduced. The transition band signifies the

frequencies in the middle, which may receive some reduction, but are not detached completely from the o/p

signal.

II- Power Line Interface reduction method

A-FIR NOTCH FILTER.

There are various methods to remove the noise of the ECG signal which may involve the IIR or FIR

filter each has its own advantages and disadvantages. FIR filter has a finite impulse response and it is always

stable, but its number of coefficients is very large, so it needs a larger memory space to store its coefficients.

On the other hand, the IIR filter has less number of coefficients and can be unstable sometimes due feedback

loop involved in it. Essentially, Equation for FIR filtering is a 1-D convolution between the filter coefficients

and the input data. In performing convolution, one of the two sets of numbers is reversed and “slid past” the

other. The resulting stream of numbers is found by taking the sum of the multiplications at each sliding interval.

Like the IIR structure, the FIR realization can be highly replica table, which becomes important in the hardware

design. One important aspect of FIRs is the linear phase characteristic, which makes it ideal for most digital
signal processing applications [1,2]. Non recursive filters are always stable unlike the recursive or IIR filters

which have to keep the pole placements in perspective. Again, FIRs have to have twice the order of an IIR

because they cannot achieve the smaller side lobes in the stop band of the frequency response given the same

number of parameters as an IIR. Despite the higher order of the FIR filter, the implementation is feasible in

hardware and possesses the necessary linear phase property needed by channel models. Filter properties, design

criteria, and the application at hand determine from which filter to choose

The FIR notch filter is well known or simplest filter to remove the power line interface notch filter

compute the Fourier transform of the signal delete undesired component and the inverse Fourier transform

There are two methods for implementation of the notch filter. First one is remove the artifact or set its

The Butterworth IIR filter and FIR types filters are applied on the ECG signal. The basic bandwidth

used for the ECG monitoring is from 0 .5 Hz to 100 Hz

The digital filter can be used to suppress the 60 Hz embedded noise. In this paper, we propose the use of

finite impulse response filters with a linear phase property to obtain the noise reduction without introducing the

phase distortion. In our design, we use the notch filter with a pole/zero canceling method, the comb notch filter

with a pole/zero canceling method and the equi-ripple notch filter with the usage of the Parks-McClellan

algorithm. By the comparison of the transition bandwidth (/spl Delta//spl omega/), stopband attenuation gains

(Astop) of these filters, we can learn the frequency response of these filters. Furthermore, we use the mean

square error (MSE) to estimate the effect of the digital filters in order to reduce the embedded 60 Hz noise.

B- IIR notch filter.

Many of the researchers have used digital Infinite Impulse Response (IIR) filter to remove the effects of

power line interference and baseline wander from ECG signals. Be-cause, the design of IIR filter is simple.

Notch filters can be used to remove the stationary power line interference. Sta-tionary means which do not vary

with amplitude, frequency and phase over time but ECG signal corrupted with power line interference is non

stationary in nature and we never have exact prior knowledge of such PLI. In the absence of prior knowledge

about power line interference (PLI) noise, application of notch or other conventional filters cause dis-tortion of
the ECG frequency spectrum [1]. For a second order notch filter, the bandwidth (Δf), notch frequency (fo) and

quality factor (referred as Q factor) are related by ,:

Q = fo /Δf (1)

Ffor a fixed notch frequency, if Q is decreased, the band-width will increase and vice versa. The Q

factor is de-creased in order to increase attenuation level. If a notch filter has higher attenuation level, it will be

able to remove PLI noise to a greater extent from ECG signal. The IIR notch filter practically fails to eliminate

the line interference at frequencies other than 50 Hz,

Major drawbacks of IIR notch filter are:

1.With increase in attenuation level the PLI noise will removes effectively but It causes increase in

notch filter bandwidth which eventually disturbs the nearby spectrum. This is the major drawback

of us-ing notch filter.

2. More filtering time is required

3. Memory requirement is also much more

4. 4-Notch filter is incapable to filter the highly non-linear signals in the entire ECG range

III- PLI Reduction by FIR Notch Filter

A-Noise Canceller
Figure 3 shows an ECG signal before application of equi-ripple notch filter. Figure 4 shows ECG signal

after application of equi-ripple notch filter. Corresponding frequency spectrum of the before application of

filter and after application of the filter. From the frequency spectrum for the before filtration ECG it is seen that

power corresponding to the 50 Hz is -26.29dB. When the notch filter is applied the power corresponds to the 50

Hz signal is reduced to -35.75dB. It clears that filter reduces the power line interference in the ECG signal. The

limitation of this filter is it requires higher order so that computational complexity is more and very difficult to

realize the filter. Figure 4 of the ECG trace after filtration clears that due to computational overhead the original

ECG trace is shifted towards to right.

Figure
 Figure3: ECG signal before application of notch

Design Of of Fir FIR Notch Filter

FIR filters are widely used due to the powerful design algorithms that exist for them, their inherent

stability when implement in non-recursive form, the ease with which one can attain linear phase, their simple

extensibility to multi-rate cases, and the ample hardware support that exists for them among other reasons

The Finite Impulse Response [FIR], filter produces the impulse response which has a limited number of

terms. These types of filters are generally realized non recursively, which means that there is no feedback

involved in computation of the output data. The output of the filter depends only on the present inputs. FIR

filters based on equi-ripple design have been designed and implemented. Table 1 shows the comparison of the

present work with other known methods .Inmethods. In comparison with the window method reduction in

signal power of 50 Hz is more in the Equiequi-ripple and Least squares methods.

In the window method the numbers of elements required are less while in equi-ripple equiripple

method more computational elements are required therefore computational time is the major difficulty of the

equi-ripple equiripple type digital filter implemented on the noisy ECG signal. Method is cost effective and

flexible.
 The simplest method of FIR filter design is called the window method. A window is an array w[n]

consisting of coefficients that meet proposed filter requirements. The design of the FIR filter using the window

method requires specifying which window functions is used. All frequencies below the cutoff frequency fc are

passed with unity amplitude while all higher frequencies are blocked. By taking the Z-Transform of this ideal

frequency response, the ideal filter kernel (impulse response) is obtained.

The FIR filters are stable and having linearhaving linear phase characteristics. FIR filters are having a

transfer function of a polynomial in z-plane and is an all-zero filter that means the zeros in the z-plane

determine the frequency response magnitude characteristic.

The z transform transform, for an N-tap FIR filter with h(k) coefficients, of N-point FIR filter is given

by:

For an N-tap FIR filter with h(k) coefficient,then the o/p is defined as

y(n)=h(0)x(n) + h(1)x(n-1) + h(2)x(n-2) + ……… h(N-1)x(n-N-1) (2)

The Z-transform of the filter is

H(z)=h(0)z-0 + h(1)z-1 + h(2)z-2 + ……… h(N-1)z-(N-1) or

The Frequency Response Formula for an FIR Filter

 A FIR filter is used to implement almost any type of digital frequency response. Usually these filters are

designed with a multiplier, adders and a series of delays to create the output of the filter. The following figure

shows the basic FIR filter diagram with N length.

Figure 5 -Logical Structure of FIR Filter

With this survey of methods used for removal of power line interference from the ECG signal it was

seen that no any method based on FIR notch equi-ripple equiripple filters have been suggested. Present work

deals with design and development of FIR equi-ripple equiripple notch filter for reduction of power line

interference in the ECG signal.

Table 1: Effect of filtration on QRS complex using equi-ripple and least squares method

TYPE OF FILTER FILTER ORDER AFFECTS ON QRS

COMPLEX

Equiripple Filter 580 Affects QRS Complex

L.S. Method 100 Affects QRS Complex

Table 1: Effect of filtration on QRS complex using Equiripple and least squares method

Design of Equiripple equi-ripple notch filter:

Linear-phase equi-ripple equiripple filters are desirable because they have the smallest maximum

deviation from the ideal filter when compared to all other linear-phase FIR filters of the same order.
 An equi-ripple Equiripple or Remez Exchange (Parks-McClellan) design technique provides an

alternative to windowing by allowing the designer to achieve the desired frequency response with the fewest

number of coefficients. This is achieved by an iterative process of comparing a selected coefficient set to the

actual frequency response specified until the solution is obtained that requires the fewest number of

coefficients. Though the efficiency of this technique is obviously very desirable, there are some concerns. For

equi-ripple equiripple algorithms some values may converge to a false result or not converge at all. Therefore,

all coefficient sets must be pre-tested off-line for every corner frequency value.

Equi-ripple Equiripple designs are based on optimization theory and require an enormous amount of

computation effort. With the availability of today's desktop computers, the computational intensity requirement

is not a problem, but combined with the possibility of convergence failure.

B. Design of Least Square notch filter:

Equi-ripple Equiripple designs may not be desirable if we want to minimize the energy of the error

(between ideal and actual filter) in the pass/stop band. Consequently, if we want to reduce the energy of a signal

as much as possible in a certain frequency band, least-squares designs are preferable

Results and discussion

In dealing with the removal of powerof power line interference FIR notch filters of 50 Hz was designed

using above methods. When equi-ripple equiripple filter was used for getting desired responses, order of the

filter required was very high. From the frequency spectrum of the ECG, it is seen that power corresponding to

the 50 Hz signal is -26.29dB. When the notch filter is used the powerthe power corresponds to the 50 Hz signal

is reduced to -35.75dB. It clears that filter reduces the power line interference in the ECG signal. The limitation

of this filter is that it requires higher order which increases computational complexity and very difficult to

realize the filter.

Conclusions
 The design of an ideal power line noise filter that has narrowly frequency selective band, that is

sensitive and self adjustingself-adjusting to slow or abrupt variations of the power line noise frequency and that

can implemented in real time has long been the goal of many researchers. In the present work to eliminate

powereliminate power line interference from the ECG FIR filtering technique using equi-ripple equiripple

notch filter works satisfactory. Table 1 shows comparison of proposed work with others. selective band, that is

sensitive and self adjustingself-adjusting to slow or abrupt variations of the power line noise frequency and

that can implemented in real time has long been the goal of many researchers.

Appendix: MATLAP codes

Imaging a sample signal coming into a Notch Filter with sampling frequency fs = 1000Hz
and the Notch frequency f0 = 50Hz.
x=ecg(20000);
Fs=1000;
Fn=50;
r=0.99;
wz=2*pi*Fn/Fs;
c=cos(wz);
bnotch=[1,-2*c,1];
anotch=[1,-2*r*c,r*r];
y=filter(bnotch,anotch,x);
freqz(bnotch,anotch)
y=filter(bnotch,anotch,x);
freqz(bnotch,anotch);

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