Resolving Superimposed Action Potentials for EMG Signal Decomposition

A practical method for resolving superimposed action potentials detected in the real electromyography (EMG) signal is describes in this paper. This algorithm is based on the peel off approach, which uses waveform peak alignment when the template waveforms have been subtracted from the superimposed action potential. Moreover, the algorithm also uses the firing pattern information to select the template waveform. Both the alignment procedure and the firing pattern information can be used to reduce the search space. The algorithm is tested using real EMG signals. After peeling off the templates from the superimposed action potentials the mean amplitude square summation of the remaining waveform was reduced to 4.96 from 45.32, which is the mean amplitude square summation of the original superimposed action potentials.