Can you please suggest any portable or handheld ECG device that can output the waveform in .dat or that can be read in matlab etc. for further analysis.
Thank you
Hello.
Interesting question. Following is my experience, which may not coincide with industry standards or accepted norm.
The reason most ECG monitors write in very specific binary format is because of IP - they do not want anyone else reading the data except for their own algorithm. This algorithm is loaded onto the monitors microcontroller, or is after the datalogger of the monitor, or both.
Other reason for writing binary is that ASCII takes a lot of space to store the same information. Therefore binary is preferred. This is especially true as the sampling rate of monitors is high, i.e. a lot of the analogue signal gets converted into digital for storage and further analysis by ECG algorithms.
I have recently being building multiple ECG monitors. I found that to write to any format you want - in your case ASCII, all you need is take the analogue input from your device (any device actually, unless it is some physical hard case that cannot be opened) and write a script, say in python, and you have your data. To get data in your preferred format, it may be useful to start with a simple 12 lead, or even 3 lead monitor till you get more success.
good luck.
Sanjay R. Kharche PhD.
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