Digitalizing Seismograms Using a Neighborhood Backtracking Method

In this paper, we present a new algorithm for tracing waves on seismograms and digitalising the waves into single vectors in the form of a time series data. The algorithm consists of two main components that will be used to handle the smooth and complicate cases, respectively. The underlying feature of the algorithm lies in a novel searching process based on examining the context of pixels to ascertain how the tracing moves forward. The algorithm has been evaluated on a limited number of samples and the result demonstrates its competence. The work presented can be regarded as an effort of developing a uniform earthquake archive covering both the historical and the digital device periods for future reassessment of the seismic hazard cross the world. The archive developed will serve as an effective means for discovering precursor of earthquakes by characterising the spectral seismograms and the source parameters of less active sources, whereby permitting comparative studies on earthquakes and development of prediction models.