Function Smoothing/ Noise Reduction

[Valdima]

Hi,

my problem involves a laser sensor as a bin level sensor. what i want to do is get rid of the noise from the signal obtained. the spikes in the picture below are because the location of the laser sensor has to be where it is and when large rocks move down into the chute they pass infront of the laser giving it temporary high readings. what i want at the end of the day is a smooth trend. if you need more info from me post what you need.

the sampling rate is 2 seconds

http://img855.imageshack.us/img855/7298/functiony.png

 

[yungman]

Do you mean the output is binary where either it is at high level when the rock pass through and low if nothing pass through? The sharp spikes that go even beyond the binary level are the one you want to get rid of and show only high and low?

You said sample rate is 2 second per sample, what is the time span of the graph? How wide are the spikes that you want to filter out?

 

[Valdima]

it is a laser distance sensor

where the distance detected varies the output, I have attached the sensor in question.

also it is a real time level sensor for the bin so the percentage on the right hand side represents the bin level and 32% is the usual bin level, based on flow rates.

the graph is being updated every 2 seconds. there is a comms network between the sensor and this graph,

the hierarchy is like
sensor-plc-scada

but yeah the aim is to remove the large spikes both up and down.