Efficient Hardware Implementation of FIR Filter to Remove Baseline Wander Noise

An Electrocardiogram (ECG) is a critical, non-invasive investigative device that records the heart’s electrical activity, enabling clinicians to detect and treat potentially life-threatening arrhythmias. However, the ECG signal is often contaminated by noise of different types, including baseline wander (BLW), electrode motion artifacts, interference due to power line and other disturbances. Among these, the elimination of baseline wander is a crucial preprocessing method before accurate manual or automated interpretation of ECG records. The challenge lies in effectively eliminating baseline wander while preserving the original clinical information, as baseline wander overlaps with ECG low-frequency components. Baseline wander preprocessing is performed using digital filters namely Infinite Impulse Response (IIR) and Finite Impulse Response (FIR) filters. In this work, we propose implementing the FIR filter using Vedic mathematics, which demonstrates improved power and delay metrics with respect to other implementations.