Foreword

The interdisciplinary field of biosignal processing has become an indispensable part

of today’s medical technology applications. In everyday clinical practice, large quant-

ities of image data and signals are continuously evaluated for diagnostic purposes.

In order to be able to offer patients the most efficient therapy for their diseases, re-

liable diagnostic tools are the foundations for proper medical decision-making. In

many situations, the doctor only has minutes – one reason why the data and signals

must be processed in a meaningful way. In addition to desirable real-time processing,

this includes above all reliability and robustness as well as a clear and unambigu-

ous presentation of the diagnostic statements. According to these requirements, some

fundamental rules must be considered in the analogue and digital processing of bi-

osignals.

This book provides a fundamental work on biosignal processing in which, be-

sides a general introduction to the generation, measurement and analogue/digital

processing of biosignals, also recent application examples are discussed. Thus, the

book is on the one hand suitable for students and teachers as an introduction to the

fundamental methodology and on the other hand a compact reference for experienced

users in the field of medical technology and medical informatics.

The subject matter of the book is supplemented by numerous recent research top-

ics in biosignal processing in the form of application-oriented programming examples

and thus also offers researchers from the natural and life sciences such as medicine

and medical technology diverse incitation for the development of novel methods in

the processing of biosignals.

The book introduces the fundamental physiological processes in the formation of

biosignals, the authors discuss the basics of analogue signal amplification and pro-

cessing as well as the digitisation for various biosignals along the measurement chain

by means of sensor and measurement technology. The design of important digital fil-

ters and basic methods for analysing the signals in the time, frequency and composite

domain as well as methods for statistical or model-based evaluation of signals are also

discussed in detail.

The content is equally convenient for students of natural sciences, namely math-

ematics, physics and biology, engineering sciences, especially computer science,

medical technology and physical engineering, as well as life sciences, especially

medicine. The presentation of the mathematical and experimental methods origin-

ated in the authors’ long-standing activity as lecturers in biosignal processing.

Compact introductions to the physical and physiological basics make it easier for

readers from related disciplines to get started and also serve as a refresher on neces-

sary basic concepts. The sections do not claim to be complete and therefore refer to

further literature at the appropriate places.

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110736298-202