MATLAB: 50 Hz interference and noise reduction from ECG.

interferencenoise

Hello! I have been trying to remove 50 Hz interference and reduce general noise on this ECG result for ages, and just can't get my head around any of the solutions online. Should I use a lowpass filter? How do I implement it? Thanks!

Best Answer

hello
If you want only to remove the 50 Hz tone , use a notch filter as shown in example below. I used your data and guessed the sampling frequency from the fact that the peak was at 50 Hz.
So sampling at 10 kHz is pretty high for an ECG signal, you could easily go down by factor 10.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%



% load signal
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%% data
signal = importdata('Sinal1.txt');
dt = 1e-4; % 0.1 milli seconds
samples = length(signal);
Fs = 1/dt; % sampling frequency (Hz)
%% decimate (if needed)
% NB : decim = 1 will do nothing (output = input)
decim = 1;
if decim>1
    signal = decimate(signal,decim);
    Fs = Fs/decim;
end
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
% FFT parameters
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
NFFT = Fs;    % 
Overlap = 0.75;
w = hanning(NFFT);     % Hanning window / Use the HANN function to get a Hanning window which has the first and last zero-weighted samples.
%% notch filter section %%%%%%
% H(s) = (s^2 + 1) / (s^2 + s/Q + 1)
fc = 50;       % notch freq
wc = 2*pi*fc;
Q = 7;         % adjust Q factor for wider (low Q) / narrower (high Q) notch
                % at f = fc the filter has gain = 0
w0 = 2*pi*fc/Fs;
alpha = sin(w0)/(2*Q);
            b0 =   1;
            b1 =  -2*cos(w0);
            b2 =   1;
            a0 =   1 + alpha;
            a1 =  -2*cos(w0);
            a2 =   1 - alpha;
            
% analog notch (for info)
num1=[1/wc^2 0 1];
den1=[1/wc^2 1/(wc*Q) 1];
% digital notch (for info)
num1z=[b0 b1 b2];
den1z=[a0 a1 a2];
freq = linspace(fc-1,fc+1,200);
[g1,p1] = bode(num1,den1,2*pi*freq);
g1db = 20*log10(g1);
[gd1,pd1] = dbode(num1z,den1z,1/Fs,2*pi*freq);
gd1db = 20*log10(gd1);
figure(1);
plot(freq,g1db,'b',freq,gd1db,'+r');
title(' Notch: H(s) = (s^2 + 1) / (s^2 + s/Q + 1)');
legend('analog','digital');
xlabel('Fréquence (Hz)');
ylabel(' dB')
 
% now let's filter the signal 
signal_filtered = filtfilt(num1z,den1z,signal);
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

% display : averaged FFT spectrum before / after notch filter
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
[freq,fft_spectrum] = myfft_peak(signal, Fs, NFFT, Overlap);
sensor_spectrum_dB = 20*log10(fft_spectrum);% convert to dB scale (ref = 1)

[freq,fft_spectrum_filtered] = myfft_peak(signal_filtered, Fs, NFFT, Overlap);
sensor_spectrum_filtered_dB = 20*log10(fft_spectrum_filtered);% convert to dB scale (ref = 1)
figure(2),semilogx(freq,sensor_spectrum_dB,'b',freq,sensor_spectrum_filtered_dB,'r');grid on
title(['Averaged FFT Spectrum  / Fs = ' num2str(Fs) ' Hz / Delta f = ' num2str(freq(2)-freq(1)) ' Hz ']);
legend('before notch filter','after notch filter');
xlabel('Frequency (Hz)');ylabel(' dB')
function  [freq_vector,fft_spectrum] = myfft_peak(signal, Fs, nfft, Overlap)
% FFT peak spectrum of signal  (example sinus amplitude 1   = 0 dB after fft).
% Linear averaging
%   signal - input signal, 
%   Fs - Sampling frequency (Hz).
%   nfft - FFT window size
%   Overlap - buffer overlap % (between 0 and 0.95)
signal = signal(:);
samples = length(signal);
% fill signal with zeros if its length is lower than nfft
if samples<nfft
    s_tmp = zeros(nfft,1);
    s_tmp((1:samples)) = signal;
    signal = s_tmp;
    samples = nfft;
end
% window : hanning
window = hanning(nfft);
window = window(:);
%    compute fft with overlap 
 offset = fix((1-Overlap)*nfft);
 spectnum = 1+ fix((samples-nfft)/offset); % Number of windows
%     % for info is equivalent to : 
%     noverlap = Overlap*nfft;
%     spectnum = fix((samples-noverlap)/(nfft-noverlap));	% Number of windows
    % main loop
    fft_spectrum = 0;
    for i=1:spectnum
        start = (i-1)*offset;
        sw = signal((1+start):(start+nfft)).*window;
        fft_spectrum = fft_spectrum + (abs(fft(sw))*4/nfft);     % X=fft(x.*hanning(N))*4/N; % hanning only 
    end
    fft_spectrum = fft_spectrum/spectnum; % to do linear averaging scaling
% one sidded fft spectrum  % Select first half 
    if rem(nfft,2)    % nfft odd
        select = (1:(nfft+1)/2)';
    else
        select = (1:nfft/2+1)';
    end
fft_spectrum = fft_spectrum(select);
freq_vector = (select - 1)*Fs/nfft;
end
Related Question