ECG signal analysis on an embedded device for sleep apnea detection

Abstract

Low cost embedded devices with computational power have the potential to revolutionise detection and management of many diseases. This is especially true in the case of conditions like sleep apnea, which require continuous long term monitoring. In this paper, we give details of a portable, cost-effective and customisable Electrocardiograph(ECG) Signal analyser for real time sleep apnea detection. We have developed a data analysis pipeline using which we can identify sleep apnea using a single lead ECG signal. Our method combines steps including dataset extraction, segmentation, signal cleaning, filtration and finally apnea detection using Support Vector Machines (SVM). We analysed our proposed implementation through a complete run on the MIT-Physionet dataset. Due to the low computational complexity of our proposed method, we find that it is well suited for deployment on embedded devices such as the Raspberry Pi.