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Proceedings ArticleDOI

Steganography techniques for ECG signals : A survey

01 Dec 2016-pp 269-273
TL;DR: Various ECG Steganography techniques that have been used by researchers are discussed; in which patient details and diagnosis report are embedded into ECG signals.
Abstract: Medical Images have been widely used to diagnose and detect the abnormalities in the human body. In this study, we have focused on ECG (Electrocardiography) signals which play a vital role in diagnosing Cardio Vascular Disease (CVD). CVD is most prevalent among the people because of changing lifestyle, Age, Tobacco, etc. According to the WHO (World Health Organization) report in 2012, around 17 million people die each year because of CVD, which represents 31% of the overall death rate. Due to the advancement in the e-Health care system, most of the ECG signals along with the patient's sensitive data are transmitted among doctors and hospitals for detailed analysis. According to the HIPAA act, it should be made sure that patient's details are to be sent securely during the transmission. In this study various ECG Steganography techniques that have been used by researchers are discussed; in which patient details and diagnosis report are embedded into ECG signals.
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
11 Oct 2018-Sensors
TL;DR: Experimental work on the assessment of the loss of ECG (electrocardiogram signal) diagnostic quality from the industrial standard EN60601-2-25:2015 point of view is presented and the Symlet of 11-th order is found as the best of the wavelets that were tested.
Abstract: Watermarking is currently investigated as an efficient and safe method of embedding additional patient or environment-related data into the electrocardiogram. This paper presents experimental work on the assessment of the loss of ECG (electrocardiogram signal) diagnostic quality from the industrial standard EN60601-2-25:2015 point of view. We implemented an original time-frequency watermarking technique with an adaptive beat-to-beat lead-independent data container design. We tested six wavelets, six coding bit depth values (including the automatic noise-dependent one) and two types of watermark content to find the conditions that are necessary for watermarked ECG to maintain the compliance with International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) requirements for interpretation performance. Unlike other authors, we did not assess the differences of signal values, but errors in ECG wave delineation results. The results of a total of 7300 original and watermarked 10 s ECGs were statistically processed to reveal possible interpretation quality degradation due to watermarking. Finally we found (1) the Symlet of 11-th order as the best of the wavelets that were tested; (2) the important role of ECG wave delineation and noise tracking procedures; (3) the high influence of the watermark-to-noise similarity of amplitude and values distribution and (4) the stability of the watermarking capacity for different heart rates in atrial rhythms.

10 citations


Cites methods from "Steganography techniques for ECG si..."

  • ...Suganya [13] is specifically focused on steganography methods using the ECG as a carrier signal....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper , the authors proposed a solution combining data encryption techniques and multiscale signal analysis for securing patients' confidential data, where the confidential patient information and the electrocardiogram (ECG) signal are first encrypted with the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) method.
Abstract: The transmission of confidential information over an open communication channel is susceptible to many threats like copyright infringement, eavesdropping and hacking. In this paper, we propose a solution combining data encryption techniques and multiscale signal analysis for securing patients’ confidential data. Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) is first applied to an ECG signal. The confidential patient information and the electrocardiogram (ECG) signal are then encrypted with the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) method. Finally, the output of the encryption is hidden in an image to form the stego image and transferred to a medical server. While cryptography ensures the confidentiality of the data modified by the encryption process, steganography enhance the security. The evaluation of the proposed system was performed with real data and quantitative parameters such as Percent Residual Difference (PRD), Mean Squared Error (MSE) and Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR). The experimental results show the proposed scheme has a good encryption effect and a strong ability to resist detection compared with the existing methods.
Proceedings ArticleDOI
30 Dec 2018
TL;DR: A method for integrating the exercise and environmental data into a digital ECG structure by watermarking technique is presented and it is proved the watermarked ECG to maintain the wave borders accuracy within tolerance limits.
Abstract: Exercise test is worldwide recognized as a valuable tool for investigating ST segment-based ischemia markers. Due to load-related risk, the test is reserved for office use, what causes inconvenience, limits patients participation rate and precludes screening for early ischemia stages. Transferring the diagnosis to patients' premises and using everyday activities as a stimulus is an interesting alternative, but needs reliable recording of physical load data. This paper presents a method for integrating the exercise and environmental data into a digital ECG structure by watermarking technique. The method analyses the time-scale ECG representation, detects the bandgap, where the bandwidth of actual cardiac content is lower than the throughput of digital series, detects the noise and replaces it by exercise-related data. Unless in irregular signals, the capacity of data container can accommodate an accompanying accelerometer and environment-related signals without deteriorating the ECG content. This makes possible to perform ECG exercise test in home conditions without additional transmission channels or data structures. The method was tested with CSE database accordingly to EN60601-2-25:2015 and proved the watermarked ECG to maintain the wave borders accuracy within tolerance limits. Consequently, restoration of original ECG record is not necessary. The method was also tested with anonymized stress-test records, which were watermarked with accelerometer data and re-interpreted to yield results fairly comparable to original diagnoses.

Cites methods from "Steganography techniques for ECG si..."

  • ...In case of ECG various approaches were proposed [10-11], however we use the concept of instantaneous bandwidth of the electrocardiogram (IBE) developed in our previous papers [12-13]....

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References
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01 Jan 2002
TL;DR: A high capacity and high quality reversible watermarking method based on difference expansion that does not need to compress original values of the embedding area and explores the redundancy in the digital content to achieve reversibility.
Abstract: Reversible watermark has drawn lots of interest recently. Different from other types of digital watermarks, a reversible watermark has a special feature that the original digital content can be completely restored. In this paper we describe a high capacity and high quality reversible watermarking method based on difference expansion. A noticeable difference between our method and others is that we do not need to compress original values of the embedding area. We explore the redundancy in the digital content to achieve reversibility.

155 citations


"Steganography techniques for ECG si..." refers methods in this paper

  • ...Difference expansion [12] was introduced by Tian et al in 2002....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: An approach that uses discrete wavelet transform to decompose signals and singular value decomposition (SVD) to embed the secret information into the decomposed ECG signal and the observations validate that HH is the ideal sub-band to hide data.
Abstract: ECG Steganography provides secured transmission of secret information such as patient personal information through ECG signals. This paper proposes an approach that uses discrete wavelet transform to decompose signals and singular value decomposition (SVD) to embed the secret information into the decomposed ECG signal. The novelty of the proposed method is to embed the watermark using SVD into the two dimensional (2D) ECG image. The embedding of secret information in a selected sub band of the decomposed ECG is achieved by replacing the singular values of the decomposed cover image by the singular values of the secret data. The performance assessment of the proposed approach allows understanding the suitable sub-band to hide secret data and the signal degradation that will affect diagnosability. Performance is measured using metrics like Kullback---Leibler divergence (KL), percentage residual difference (PRD), peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR) and bit error rate (BER). A dynamic location selection approach for embedding the singular values is also discussed. The proposed approach is demonstrated on a MIT-BIH database and the observations validate that HH is the ideal sub-band to hide data. It is also observed that the signal degradation (less than 0.6 %) is very less in the proposed approach even with the secret data being as large as the sub band size. So, it does not affect the diagnosability and is reliable to transmit patient information.

72 citations


"Steganography techniques for ECG si..." refers methods in this paper

  • ...5 Jero et al, 2016 PSNR, PRD, BER DWT and SVD It is observed that the usage of BCH code corrects the bit error by 28.4% but the PSNR value has been reduced by 10.5%....

    [...]

  • ...Jero et al [4] have proposed a technique for performing DWT – SVD based ECG Steganography....

    [...]

  • ...6 Jero et al, 2015 KL, PRD, PSNR, BER DWT and SVD , CACO BER was observed as 0% for all the test cases and PSNR% found to be decreasing at the rate of 11% for every 30% increase of watermark size....

    [...]

  • ...LITERATURE SURVEY Jero et al [1] proposed an approach to perform ECG steganography using curvelet transform....

    [...]

  • ...In 2016, Jero et al [5] have proposed a robust ECG Steganography method in order to embed the Bose – Chaudhuri – Hocquengham (BCH) error – correcting coded patient data in the ECG signal using DWT – SVD technique....

    [...]

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The novelty of the proposed approach is to use CACO in ECG Steganography, to identify Multiple Scaling Factors (MSFs) that will provide a better tradeoff compared to uniform Single Scaling Factor (SSF) and the results validate that the tradeoff curve obtained through MSFs is better than the tradeoffs obtained for any SSF.
Abstract: ECG steganography is performed using DWT-SVD and quantization watermarking scheme.Imperceptibility-robustness tradeoff is investigated.Continuous Ant Colony Optimization provides optimized Multiple Scaling Factors.MSFs are superior to SSF in providing better imperceptibility-robustness tradeoff. ECG Steganography ensures protection of patient data when ECG signals embedded with patient data are transmitted over the internet. Steganography algorithms strive to recover the embedded patient data entirely and to minimize the deterioration in the cover signal caused by the embedding. This paper presents a Continuous Ant Colony Optimization (CACO) based ECG Steganography scheme using Discrete Wavelet Transform and Singular Value Decomposition. Quantization techniques allow embedding the patient data into the ECG signal. The scaling factor in the quantization techniques governs the tradeoff between imperceptibility and robustness. The novelty of the proposed approach is to use CACO in ECG Steganography, to identify Multiple Scaling Factors (MSFs) that will provide a better tradeoff compared to uniform Single Scaling Factor (SSF). The optimal MSFs significantly improve the performance of ECG steganography which is measured by metrics such as Peak Signal to Noise Ratio, Percentage Residual Difference, Kullback-Leibler distance and Bit Error Rate. Performance of the proposed approach is demonstrated on the MIT-BIH database and the results validate that the tradeoff curve obtained through MSFs is better than the tradeoff curve obtained for any SSF. The results also advocate appropriate SSFs for target imperceptibility or robustness.

66 citations


"Steganography techniques for ECG si..." refers methods in this paper

  • ...5 Jero et al, 2016 PSNR, PRD, BER DWT and SVD It is observed that the usage of BCH code corrects the bit error by 28.4% but the PSNR value has been reduced by 10.5%....

    [...]

  • ...Jero et al [4] have proposed a technique for performing DWT – SVD based ECG Steganography....

    [...]

  • ...6 Jero et al, 2015 KL, PRD, PSNR, BER DWT and SVD , CACO BER was observed as 0% for all the test cases and PSNR% found to be decreasing at the rate of 11% for every 30% increase of watermark size....

    [...]

  • ...LITERATURE SURVEY Jero et al [1] proposed an approach to perform ECG steganography using curvelet transform....

    [...]

  • ...In 2016, Jero et al [5] have proposed a robust ECG Steganography method in order to embed the Bose – Chaudhuri – Hocquengham (BCH) error – correcting coded patient data in the ECG signal using DWT – SVD technique....

    [...]

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors used quantization based digital watermark encryption technology on the Electrocardiogram (ECG) to protect patient rights and information, which is the most widely used technology in the field of copyright and biological information protection.
Abstract: Watermarking is the most widely used technology in the field of copyright and biological information protection. In this paper, we use quantization based digital watermark encryption technology on the Electrocardiogram (ECG) to protect patient rights and information. Three transform domains, DWT, DCT, and DFT are adopted to implement the quantization based watermarking technique. Although the watermark embedding process is not invertible, the change of the PQRST complexes and amplitude of the ECG signal is very small and so the watermarked data can meet the requirements of physiological diagnostics. In addition, the hidden information can be extracted without knowledge of the original ECG data. In other words, the proposed watermarking scheme is blind. Experimental results verify the efficiency of the proposed scheme.

61 citations


"Steganography techniques for ECG si..." refers methods in this paper

  • ...Chen et al [2] have implemented ECG Steganography in the MIT – BIH database....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: An attempt has been made to use curvelet transforms which permit identifying the coefficients that store the crucial information about diagnosis in ECG steganography to validate that coefficients around zero are ideal for watermarking to minimize deterioration and there is no loss in the data retrieved.

56 citations


"Steganography techniques for ECG si..." refers methods in this paper

  • ...6 Jero et al, 2015 KL, PRD, PSNR, BER DWT and SVD , CACO BER was observed as 0% for all the test cases and PSNR% found to be decreasing at the rate of 11% for every 30% increase of watermark size....

    [...]

  • ...Jero et al [1] proposed an approach to perform ECG steganography using curvelet transform....

    [...]

  • ...LITERATURE SURVEY Jero et al [1] proposed an approach to perform ECG steganography using curvelet transform....

    [...]

  • ...In 2016, Jero et al [5] have proposed a robust ECG Steganography method in order to embed the Bose – Chaudhuri – Hocquengham (BCH) error – correcting coded patient data in the ECG signal using DWT – SVD technique....

    [...]

  • ...Jero et al [6] has proposed a paper for the imperceptibility – robustness tradeoff studies for ECG steganography using Continuous Ant Colony Optimization (CACO), in which CACO has been used to select the Multiple Scaling Factor’s(MSFs) for watermark embedding and it will be used to reduce the level of deterioration of the signal....

    [...]