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. 2025 Mar 30;25(7):2185.
doi: 10.3390/s25072185.

Reversible Watermarking for Electrocardiogram Protection

Pavel Andreev  1 , Anna Denisova  1 , Victor Fedoseev  1
Affiliations

Reversible Watermarking for Electrocardiogram Protection

Pavel Andreev et al. Sensors (Basel). .

Abstract

The electrocardiogram (ECG) is one of the widespread diagnostic methods used in telemedicine. However, in the telemedicine systems, the data transfer process to the end user may suffer from security risks. Reversible watermarking can preserve the security of electrocardiograms and keep their original precision for correct diagnostics. In this paper, we present an extensive investigation of four reversible watermarking methods: prediction error expansion (PEE), reversible contrast mapping difference expansion (RCM), integer transform-based difference expansion (ITB), and compression-based watermarking. We discover new facets of the existing ECG watermarking methods (PEE and compression-based watermarking) and adapt image watermarking methods (RCM and ITB) to ECG signal. We compare different kinds of prediction and compression methods used in the studied methods and provide a watermark capacity comparison for different methods' implementations. The research results will help in watermarking method selection in practice.

Keywords: PSNR; compression-based watermarking; integer transform-based difference expansion; inter-lead relationship; prediction error expansion; reversible contrast mapping difference expansion; watermark capacity.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Reversible watermarking scheme.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Example of ECG leads.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Prediction quality vs. lead number graph.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Saved storage space and PSNR values for watermarking in different signal bit planes.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Reversible watermarking methods comparison.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Average BPS for selected algorithms depending on lead group.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Average PSNR for selected algorithms depending on lead group.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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