An LZ approach to ECG compression

Two highly effective families of lossless compression methods were created by Ziv and Lempel (1977). However, these methods are normally ineffective when applied to digitized signals. We have successfully adapted the LZ77 method to take advantage of the repetitive nature of ECG waveforms. In our experiments, the resulting algorithm produces much better compression ratios than competing techniques while retaining the essential characteristics of the waveform.<
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