Savitzky–Golay Filter: 60 Years 🎂 of Smoothing Noisy Data
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Sixty years ago, in July of 1964, Abraham Savitzky and Marcel J. E. Golay published a seminal paper in Analytical Chemistry where they introduced a technique designed to smooth out noise in spectroscopic data and enhance the signal without significantly distorting the underlying trends. The Savitzky-Golay filter was one of the first signal processing techniques that I’ve learned in grad school, and the simplicity and elegance of this method has captured my heart ever since. As we approach the 60th anniversary of this influential technique, let’s explore its development, applications, and the enduring impact on science.
Oh, and we are also going to implement it in Excel VBA.