Contribution to Single-Channel Fetal Electrocardiogram Identification Said Ziani 1,2 1 Laboratory in Computer Networks, Telecommunications and Multimedia, High School of Technology, Hassan II University, Casablanca 20153, Morocco 2 Health Technologies Engineering Department, Research Group in Biomedical Engineering and Pharmaceutical Sciences, ENSAM, Mohammed V University, Rabat 10090, Morocco Corresponding Author Email: SAID.ZIANI@univh2c.ma https://doi.org/10.18280/ts.390617 ABSTRACT Received: 8 November 2022 Accepted: 10 December 2022 This paper presents the recognition of fetal ECG signals from a single-channel recording. The Continuous Wavelet Transform generates a two-dimensional representation of a single- dimension input containing fetal electrocardiogram waves, which are accurately located and isolated. By segmenting this 2D representation using Otsu's method, the continuous wavelet transform of each wave may be estimated. The temporal expression of the wave is then rebuilt by calculating the Inverse Continuous Wavelet Transform. The continuity between each sample allows us to follow the waves from one image to the next. Consequently, the complete profile can be automatically processed. Keywords: fetal, electrocardiogram, continuous wavelet, transform, segmentation 1. INTRODUCTION The electrocardiogram (ECG) is a non-stationary signal with multiple time-varying wave components (P, QRS, and T) as shown in Figure 1. This signal is a helpful diagnostic tool in cardiology for adults and children. The cardiologist will strategically insert electrodes on the patient's skin to record this signal. To extract the fetus' cardiac activity, the signals generated by the mother and fetus must be distinguished, which is the principal cause of death rates worldwide in Morocco. According to the World Health Organization, cardiovascular disease is now the leading cause of death worldwide, killing more than 17 million people yearly (WHO). Heart disease is the number one killer in Morocco. Because congenital cardiac defects can develop as early as the first trimester, pregnant women and their newborns must be constantly monitored. There is a wide range of congenital cardiac defects, both hereditary and acquired, and early detection is key to full recovery. An estimated 6,000 Moroccan infants are born each year with some form of congenital heart disease or a cardiac abnormality. The emergence of symptoms in babies is commonly used as a diagnostic marker for the prenatal disease. According to experts, professionals in Morocco tend to make late prenatal or early pregnancy diagnoses. Our research contribution is a method for establishing the fetal ECG as a reliable, early- detection tool for congenital heart disease (FECG). By attaching electrodes to the mother's belly, the fetal electrocardiogram (ECG) may be monitored. However, its amplitude is relatively high, making it difficult to interpret. It is weak and jumbled due to several noise sources, the most prominent of which is the mother's ECG (MECG). Extensive research has attempted to address this separating challenge since 1980; they may be roughly divided into two categories those who employ multi-channel techniques, such as ICA and PCA [1-4], and those who employ a single channel, such as ICA-NMF, ICA-EMD, and ICA-SVD [5-9]. In this paper, we aim to identify the electrocardiogram (ECG) of the fetus using a single channel by applying the segmentation technique. In the second section of this paper, we will provide the methodology of image segmentation using thresholding. The third section will give the proposed algorithm. In the subsequent sections, the proposed approach’s founding and effectiveness, which uses a single sensor and is validated using synthetic data and real recordings, will be discussed and evaluated. Figure 1. ECG signal 2. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 2.1 Scalogram The concept of signal energy [4] is as follows: (, ) = |∫ () ∗ ( −  ) +∞ −∞ | 2 (1) Traitement du Signal Vol. 39, No. 6, December, 2022, pp. 2055-2060 Journal homepage: http://iieta.org/journals/ts 2055