An Automatic Subject-Adaptable Heartbeat Classifier Based on Multiview Learning

In this paper, a novel subject-adaptable heartbeat classification model is presented, in order to address the significant interperson variations in ECG signals. A multiview learning approach is proposed to automate subject adaptation using a small amount of unlabeled personal data, without requiring manual labeling. The designed subject-customized models consist of two models, namely, general classification model and specific classification model. The general model is trained using similar subjects out of a population dataset, where a pattern matching based algorithm is developed to select the subjects that are “similar” to the particular test subject for model training. In contrast, the specific model is trained mainly on a small amount of high-confidence personal dataset, resulting from multiview-based learning. The learned general model represents the population knowledge, providing an interperson perspective for classification, while the specific model corresponds to the specific knowledge of the subject, offering an intraperson perspective for classification. The two models supplement each other and are combined to achieve improved personalized ECG analysis. The proposed methods have been validated on the MIT-BIH Arrhythmia Database, yielding an average classification accuracy of 99.4% for ventricular ectopic beat class and 98.3% for supraventricular ectopic beat class, which corresponds to a significant improvement over other published results.