A Simple FPGA Based ECG R Wave Peak Detection System For Heart Rate And Heart Rate Variability Calculation

A simple and reliable Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) based ECG Analysis system is discussed in this paper. An R peak detection system is modeled that identifies the time instances at which the R peak occurred. The system first calculates the threshold value for the next peak detection cycle, by looking at the previous peak. The hardware design has accuracy in excess of 99% in detecting the beats correctly when tested with a subset of AF Termination Challenge Database. The design, implemented using a proprietary design tool (Xilinx ISE),uses 8%of the resources available in a small sized FPGA device (Xilinx Spartan® xc3s500) and is able to calculate the heart rate and heart rate variability of the signal in the given data base. A front end using Microsoft Visual Studio was also designed for interfacing with a PC to transfer data to the FPGA from the signal database and receive the calculated values for display and for testing purposes.