The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Nov. 30, 1999
Filed:
Apr. 24, 1998
Dale A Gedcke, Oak Ridge, TN (US);
Russell D Bingham, Knoxville, TN (US);
Susan Haywood, Oak Ridge, TN (US);
EG&G Instruments, Inc., Wellesley, MA (US);
Abstract
A method and apparatus for compression and filtering of data associated with spectrometry. The method and apparatus serves to recognize peak events and filter data associated with background noise, thereby reducing the volume of data to be transferred to storage and the data transfer rate required for storing the desired data. The method of the present invention monitors the value of each data point as it is encountered and compares it to the previously encountered data to determine whether it is on or very near a peak. The y values for each data point are continuously summed and averaged to determine the average background level. The deviation .delta..sub.i is determined for each subsequent data point and is used to determine a threshold. Each subsequent data point is compared to the threshold and, if found to be above the threshold, is assumed to be part of or very near a peak. At this point, the averaging is stopped until a subsequent data point is determined to be below the threshold. After any peaks have been detected, all or a portion of the data associated the background noise and scatter in the spectrum may be discarded, with only the data relevant to the peaks, and any other desired data kept. Other desired data may include data associated with background noise close to each peak, every n.sup.th data point, the first group of data points encountered, and data corresponding to the first and last groups of data points in each block of data. The sensitivity may be varied to raise the threshold with respect to the average background level and eliminate errant background noise from appearing as a peak.