According to embodiments, a method and system for artifact detection in signals is disclosed. The artifacts may take the form of movement artifacts in physiological (e.g., pulse oximetry) signals. Artifacts in the wavelet space of the physiological signal may be removed, replaced, ignored, filtered, or otherwise modified by determining the energy within a predefined moving area of the wavelet scalogram, comparing the determined energy within the predefined moving area of the wavelet scalogram to a threshold value, and masking at least one area of artifact in the wavelet scalogram based, at least in part, on the comparison. From the enhanced signal, physiological parameters, for example, respiration, respiratory effort, pulse, and oxygen saturation, may be more reliably and accurately derived or computed.
