Detection of the seismocardiogram W complex based on multiscale edges

Seismocardiography is a new non-invasive technique developed for recording and analyzing cardiac vibratory activity. At present, a single channel electrocardiogram (ECG) has to be recorded simultaneously to provide a timing reference. Beat detection and analysis of SCGs rely on peak detection of the ECG QRS complex. In the SCG of one beat, there is a dominant characteristic complex, called the W complex. This complex is analogous to the ECG's QRS complex as a beat timing reference, and may carry significant discriminant information for SCG classification. In this paper, an automated SCG characteristic W complex detection algorithm, using a wavelet-based multiscale edge detection technique, is described. Preliminary test results demonstrate that this technique is effective for localization of the W complex.