Patent ID: 7647187

Claim:
A method of processing a data set to determine whether the data set exhibits statistically linear behavior, the method comprising: receiving an original set of data points having a signal component and a noise component, each data point representing a physical quantity of a substance during an amplification process; fitting the original data set to a linear function; calculating a residual between the original data set and the fitted linear function; calculating a first measure of the residual between the original data set and the fitted linear function; estimating the noise component present in the original data set, by: i) calculating a smoothed data set by determining a set of smoothed data points, wherein a value of a smoothed data point is based on values of a plurality of original data points that are local to that smoothed data point; and ii) calculating a residual between the smoothed data set and the original data set; calculating a second measure of the residual between the smoothed data set and the original data set; and comparing the first measure to the second measure to determine whether the original data set exhibits statistically linear behavior, wherein the method is implemented using a processor.