Converted from/based on a MATLAB script at: 
    http://billauer.co.il/peakdet.html
    
    function for detecting local maximas and minmias in a signal.
    Discovers peaks by searching for values which are surrounded by lower
    or larger values for maximas and minimas respectively
    
    keyword arguments:
    y_axis -- A list containg the signal over which to find peaks
    x_axis -- (optional) A x-axis whose values correspond to the y_axis list
        and is used in the return to specify the postion of the peaks. If
        omitted an index of the y_axis is used. (default: None)
    lookahead -- (optional) distance to look ahead from a peak candidate to
        determine if it is the actual peak (default: 200) 
        '(sample / period) / f' where '4 >= f >= 1.25' might be a good value
    delta -- (optional) this specifies a minimum difference between a peak and
        the following points, before a peak may be considered a peak. Useful
        to hinder the function from picking up false peaks towards to end of
        the signal. To work well delta should be set to delta >= RMSnoise * 5.
        (default: 0)
            delta function causes a 20% decrease in speed, when omitted
            Correctly used it can double the speed of the function
    
    return -- two lists [max_peaks, min_peaks] containing the positive and
        negative peaks respectively. Each cell of the lists contains a tupple
        of: (position, peak_value) 
        to get the average peak value do: np.mean(max_peaks, 0)[1] on the
        results to unpack one of the lists into x, y coordinates do: 
        x, y = zip(*tab)

def peakdetect(y_axis, x_axis=None, lookahead=300, delta=0):
    """
    Converted from/based on a MATLAB script at: 
    http://billauer.co.il/peakdet.html
    
    function for detecting local maximas and minmias in a signal.
    Discovers peaks by searching for values which are surrounded by lower
    or larger values for maximas and minimas respectively
    
    keyword arguments:
    y_axis -- A list containg the signal over which to find peaks
    x_axis -- (optional) A x-axis whose values correspond to the y_axis list
        and is used in the return to specify the postion of the peaks. If
        omitted an index of the y_axis is used. (default: None)
    lookahead -- (optional) distance to look ahead from a peak candidate to
        determine if it is the actual peak (default: 200) 
        '(sample / period) / f' where '4 >= f >= 1.25' might be a good value
    delta -- (optional) this specifies a minimum difference between a peak and
        the following points, before a peak may be considered a peak. Useful
        to hinder the function from picking up false peaks towards to end of
        the signal. To work well delta should be set to delta >= RMSnoise * 5.
        (default: 0)
            delta function causes a 20% decrease in speed, when omitted
            Correctly used it can double the speed of the function
    
    return -- two lists [max_peaks, min_peaks] containing the positive and
        negative peaks respectively. Each cell of the lists contains a tupple
        of: (position, peak_value) 
        to get the average peak value do: np.mean(max_peaks, 0)[1] on the
        results to unpack one of the lists into x, y coordinates do: 
        x, y = zip(*tab)
    """
    max_peaks = []
    min_peaks = []
    dump = []   # Used to pop the first hit which almost always is false
    
    # check input data
    x_axis, y_axis = _datacheck_peakdetect(x_axis, y_axis)
    # store data length for later use
    length = len(y_axis)
    
    
    #perform some checks
    if lookahead < 1:
        raise ValueError, "Lookahead must be '1' or above in value"
    #NOTE: commented this to use the function with log(histogram)
    #if not (np.isscalar(delta) and delta >= 0):
    if not (np.isscalar(delta)):
        raise ValueError, "delta must be a positive number"
    
    #maxima and minima candidates are temporarily stored in
    #mx and mn respectively
    mn, mx = np.Inf, -np.Inf
    
    #Only detect peak if there is 'lookahead' amount of points after it
    for index, (x, y) in enumerate(zip(x_axis[:-lookahead], 
                                        y_axis[:-lookahead])):
        if y > mx:
            mx = y
            mxpos = x
        if y < mn:
            mn = y
            mnpos = x
        
        ####look for max####
        if y < mx-delta and mx != np.Inf:
            #Maxima peak candidate found
            #look ahead in signal to ensure that this is a peak and not jitter
            if y_axis[index:index+lookahead].max() < mx:
                max_peaks.append([mxpos, mx])
                dump.append(True)
                #set algorithm to only find minima now
                mx = np.Inf
                mn = np.Inf
                if index+lookahead >= length:
                    #end is within lookahead no more peaks can be found
                    break
                continue
            #else:  #slows shit down this does
            #    mx = ahead
            #    mxpos = x_axis[np.where(y_axis[index:index+lookahead]==mx)]
        
        ####look for min####
        if y > mn+delta and mn != -np.Inf:
            #Minima peak candidate found 
            #look ahead in signal to ensure that this is a peak and not jitter
            if y_axis[index:index+lookahead].min() > mn:
                min_peaks.append([mnpos, mn])
                dump.append(False)
                #set algorithm to only find maxima now
                mn = -np.Inf
                mx = -np.Inf
                if index+lookahead >= length:
                    #end is within lookahead no more peaks can be found
                    break
            #else:  #slows shit down this does
            #    mn = ahead
            #    mnpos = x_axis[np.where(y_axis[index:index+lookahead]==mn)]

    #Remove the false hit on the first value of the y_axis
    try:
        if dump[0]:
            max_peaks.pop(0)
        else:
            min_peaks.pop(0)
        del dump
    except IndexError:
        #no peaks were found, should the function return empty lists?
        pass
        
    return [max_peaks, min_peaks]