According to embodiments, systems and methods are provided that use continuous wavelet transforms and basis functions to provide an optimized system for the determination of physiological information. In an embodiment, the basis functions may be used to refine an area of interest in the signal in frequency or in time, and the continuous wavelet transform may be used to identify a maxima ridge in the scalogram at scales with characteristic frequencies proximal to the frequency or frequencies of interest. In another embodiment, a wavelet transform may be used to identify regions of a signal with the morphology of interest while basis functions may be used to focus on these regions to determine or filter information of interest. In yet another embodiment, basis functions and continuous wavelet transforms may be used concurrently and their results combined to form optimized information or a confidence metric for determined physiological information.