Patent ID: 7409298

Claim:
A method of analyzing a multi-dimensional data set to determine the presence of one or more peaks within the data set, the peaks being representative of respective compounds, the method being performed by a computer at least one processor and at least one memory, and being used for detecting at least one constituent compound in a sample mixture, comprising the steps of: generating a first multi-dimensional data set, the first data set being representable by a first data array including a first dimension corresponding to compound separation and a second dimension corresponding to compound characteristics; analyzing the first data array in the compound separation dimension to generate one or more original representations of the compound separation, the original representations including one or more peaks and one or more regions having no peaks; determining noise characteristics of the first data set based on an analysis of the regions of the original representations having no peaks; reducing noise in the first multi-dimensional data set by performing matched filtration of the original representations of the compound separation with at least one transfer function based on the determined noise characteristics, thereby generating one or more noise-reduced representations of the compound separation, the noise-reduced representations including one or more peaks; generating a second multi-dimensional data set with reduced noise based on the noise-reduced representations, the second data set being representable by a second data array including a compound separation dimension and a compound characteristics dimension; analyzing the second data array in the compound separation dimension and the compound characteristics dimension to determine the presence of one or more peaks within the second data set; and in the event one or more peaks are present within the second data set, storing data indicative of the peaks within the second data set in the memory.