FRAME-BASED UNDERSTANDING OF ECG SIGNALS.

The configuration of a new ECG signal understanding system is presented. The structural and semantic information regarding signals is described in frames under the name of the prototypes. A prototype-driven hypothesis formation paradigm is used in the understanding process. Extraction of the significant points of signals is followed by the understanding process. A constraint satisfaction strategy and structural pattern matching techniques are used in a mixed fashion, the former is used in building the layered graph from which globally prominent points are searched for, whereas the latter are used for confirming waves by finding the supporting points of each prominent point under study. The domain of the constraints includes time intervals and attributes of signal components. These constraints can be exploited to reduce the complexity of search effort. For recognition of QRS, an ad hoc hypothesis-switching network is maintained that facilitates dynamic QRS hypothesis switching when a hypothesized QRS would not be instantiated.