Characterization of signals by the ridges of their wavelet transforms

We present a couple of new algorithmic procedures for the detection of ridges in the modulus of the (continuous) wavelet transform of one-dimensional signals. These detection procedures are shown to be robust to additive white noise. We also derive and test a new reconstruction procedure. The latter uses only information from the restriction of the wavelet transform to a sample of points from the ridge. This provides with a very efficient way to code the information contained in the signal. Partially supported by ONR N00014-91-1010 Supported by NSF IBN 9405146