Simulation of Ventricular Tachycardia in Photoplethysmogram: Hardware Implementation

This study investigates a hardware implementation of a photoplethysmogram (PPG) simulator designed for testing PPG-based wearable devices, focusing on ventricular tachycardia.The simulator uses beat-to-beat interval series as an input, allowing for the utilization of publicly available ECG databases to simulate PPG signals that include episodes of ventricular tachycardia.To assess the accuracy of the hardware simulator-produced signals compared to actual PPG signals, the PhysioNet/CinC Challenge 2015 training dataset is employed, consisting of 39 recordings with ventricular tachycardia.The simulatorproduced signals acquired using a wrist-worn device exhibited an RMS error of 0.72 a.u.for the episodes of ventricular tachycardia and 0.69 a.u.for the entire signal when compared to actual PPG signals.The correlation coefficient for heart rate derived from ECG and simulatorproduced PPG signals was 0.98.The hardware simulator is anticipated to be a valuable tool in the development and testing of PPG-based wearable devices intended for monitoring individuals at elevated risk of sudden cardiac death due to ventricular tachycardia.