Detecting Natural ``Plateaus'' in One-Dimensional Patterns

A method of detecting natural ``plateaus'' (equals maximal intervals of approximately constant value) in a one-dimensional pattern is described. The method is based on examining neighborhoods of each point having a range of sizes; rejecting neighborhoods of each size for which the standard deviation (of pattern values over the neighborhood) is not a local minimum; and further rejecting any neighborhood N whose subintervals of conparable size do not have mean pattern values approximately equal to that of N.