  We present a novel method, based on a multiscale approach, for detecting
anisotropy signatures in the arrival direction distribution of the highest
energy cosmic rays. This method is catalog independent, i.e. it does not depend
on the choice of a particular catalog of candidate sources, and it provides a
good discrimination power even in presence of contaminating isotropic
background. We present applications to simulated data sets of events
corresponding to plausible scenarios for events detected, in the last decades,
by world-wide surface detector-based observatories for charged particles.
