Peak detection of measured signal

Question

We use a data acquisition card to take readings from a device that increases its signal to a peak and then falls back to near the original value. To find the peak value we c

Answer 1

This problem has been studied in some detail.

There are a set of very up-to-date implementations in the TSpectrum* classes of ROOT (a nuclear/particle physics analysis tool). The code works in one- to three-dimensional data.

The ROOT source code is available, so you can grab this implementation if you want.

From the TSpectrum class documentation:

The algorithms used in this class have been published in the following references:

[1] M.Morhac et al.: Background elimination methods for multidimensional coincidence gamma-ray spectra. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A 401 (1997) 113- 132.

[2] M.Morhac et al.: Efficient one- and two-dimensional Gold deconvolution and its application to gamma-ray spectra decomposition. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A 401 (1997) 385-408.

[3] M.Morhac et al.: Identification of peaks in multidimensional coincidence gamma-ray spectra. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Research Physics A 443(2000), 108-125.

The papers are linked from the class documentation for those of you who don't have a NIM online subscription.

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The short version of what is done is that the histogram flattened to eliminate noise, and then local maxima are detected by brute force in the flattened histogram.