ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to stress mainly the aspects connected with the acquisition and analysis of biologic signals, leaving to the cited literature a deeper insight into the various subjects for both the fundamentals of digital signal processing and the applications. It presents the main concepts of analysis and design of digital filters, and a few examples are illustrated in the processing of the ECG signal. An analog preprocessing block is usually required to amplify and filter the signal, to compensate for some unwanted sensor characteristics, or to reduce the portion of undesired noise. The hypothesis of a bandlimited signal is verified in biomedical signals due to the signal characteristics or due to the effect of superimposed wideband noise. Particular processing algorithms have been described that use digital filtering techniques, coherent averaging, and power spectrum analysis as reference examples on how traditional or innovative techniques of digital signal processing may impact the phase of informative parameter extraction from biologic signals.
