ECG signal generator based on geometrical features

Abstract. Electrocardiograms are widely used in biomedical signal processing to diagnose abnormal heart functioning. Many algorithms have been constructed to analyse, measure and compress these signals. These methods are hard to test because real ECG signals are distorted by several types of noise. In this paper we present an algorithm which generates realistic synthetic ECG signals. This algorithm, among others, can be used for testing new methods in ECG processing.
By using numerical and geometrical parameters, which are of diagnostical importance, the generated signal can be interpreted as a biomedical signal with important diagnostical intervals such as QRS, QT, PR etc. On the other hand this model gives us a strictly mathematical control over the signal. In our interpretation ECG signals are curves with prescribed parameters, including derivatives, curvature etc. We note that Clifford and McSharry and their coauthors [2], [8], [10] carried out a similar program based on a dynamical model. Our approach is essentially different from theirs.