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heartKIT
Tasks
HELIA

Signal Denoising Task

The objective of denoising is to remove noise and artifacts from physiological signals while preserving the underlying signal information. The dominant noise sources include baseline wander (BW), muscle noise (EMG), electrode movement artifacts (EM), and powerline interference (PLI). For physiological signals such as ECG and PPG, removing the artifacts is difficult due to the non-stationary nature of the noise and overlapping frequency bands with the signal. While traditional signal processing techniques such as filtering and wavelet denoising have been used to remove noise, deep learning models have shown great promise in enhanced denoising.


The following table summarizes the characteristics of common noise sources in ECG signals:

TypeCausesSpectrumEffects
Baseline Wander (BW)Respiration, posture changes0-1.0 HzDistorts ST segment and other LF components
Powerline Interference (PLI)Electrical equipment50-60 HzDistorts P and T waves
Muscle Noise (EMG)Muscle activity0-100 HzDistorts local waves
Electrode Movement (EM)Electrode motion, skinimpedance0-100 HzDistorts local waves

The following table summarizes the characteristics of common noise sources in PPG signals:

TypeCausesSpectrumEffects
Motion ArtifactsMovement, pressure0-10 HzDistorts signal
Ambient LightSunlight, artificial light0-100 HzDistorts signal
Blood PressureBlood flow, pressure0-10 HzDistorts signal

Dataloaders are available for the following datasets:


The following table provides the latest performance and accuracy results of denoising models. Additional result details can be found in Model Zoo → Denoise.

NAMEDATASETFSDURATIONMODELPARAMSFLOPSMETRIC
DEN-TCN-SMSynthetic, PTB-XL100Hz2.5sTCN3.3K1.0M18.1 SNR
DEN-TCN-LGSynthetic, PTB-XL100Hz2.5sTCN6.3K1.8M19.5 SNR
DEN-PPG-TCN-SMSynthetic100Hz2.5sTCN3.5K1.1M92.1% COS