An sEMG Denoising Method with Improved Threshold Estimation for Rapid Keystroke Tasks

Surface electromyography (sEMG) signals are inevitably affected by noise during acquisition, thereby degrading signal quality and analytical reliability. Most existing denoising methods combine signal decomposition with thresholding, and their performance depends on empirically set decomposition parameters and threshold estimation. However, in high-rate repetitive motions such as rapid keystrokes, sustained high-duty-cycle muscle activation biases universal-threshold noise estimation, leading to unreliable thresholds. To overcome these issues, an sEMG denoising method that integrates the Walrus Optimizer (WO) with Variational Mode Decomposition (VMD) is proposed. WO is employed to optimize key VMD parameters, including the number of modes K and the penalty factor α. Based on this method, an improved threshold estimation strategy is developed to accommodate high-duty-cycle sEMG during rapid keystrokes. It reduces thresholding-induced over-attenuation of meaningful myoelectric components. The dataset included 18 participants with sEMG recorded from six muscles during rapid keystroke tasks (10 trials per participant; 20 keystrokes per trial). Across input signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) of 0, 5, 10, 15 dB, the proposed method achieved a median SNR improvement (ΔSNR) ranging from 2.75 to 6.65 dB and a median root-mean-square error (RMSE) reduction rate (ΔRMSE%) ranging from 27% to 53%, while maintaining spectral fidelity with a median of median frequency variation rate (ΔMDF%) below 3.48%.These results indicate that the proposed method provides an efficient and reliable solution for sEMG signal processing in rapid keystroke analysis.