You could use an averaging algorithm where the old values decay linearly. If S_n is the speed at time n and A_{n-1} is the average at time n-1, then define your average speed as follows.
A_1 = S_1
A_2 = (S_1 + S_2)/2
A_n = S_n/(n-1) + A_{n-1}(1-1/(n-1))
In English, this means that the longer in the past a measurement occurred, the less it matters because its importance has decayed.
Compare this to the normal averaging algorithm:
A_n = S_n/n + A_{n-1}(1-1/n)
You could also have it geometrically decay, which would weight the most recent speeds very heavily:
A_n = S_n/2 + A_{n-1}/2
If the speeds are 4,3,5,6 then
A_4 = 4.5 (simple average)
A_4 = 4.75 (linear decay)
A_4 = 5.125 (geometric decay)
Example in PHP
Beware that $n+1 (not $n) is the number of current data points due to PHP's arrays being zero-indexed. To match the above example set n == $n+1 or n-1 == $n
<?php
$s = [4,3,5,6];
// average
$a = [];
for ($n = 0; $n < count($s); ++$n)
{
if ($n == 0)
$a[$n] = $s[$n];
else
{
// $n+1 = number of data points so far
$weight = 1/($n+1);
$a[$n] = $s[$n] * $weight + $a[$n-1] * (1 - $weight);
}
}
var_dump($a);
// linear decay
$a = [];
for ($n = 0; $n < count($s); ++$n)
{
if ($n == 0)
$a[$n] = $s[$n];
elseif ($n == 1)
$a[$n] = ($s[$n] + $s[$n-1]) / 2;
else
{
// $n = number of data points so far - 1
$weight = 1/($n);
$a[$n] = $s[$n] * $weight + $a[$n-1] * (1 - $weight);
}
}
var_dump($a);
// geometric decay
$a = [];
for ($n = 0; $n < count($s); ++$n)
{
if ($n == 0)
$a[$n] = $s[$n];
else
{
$weight = 1/2;
$a[$n] = $s[$n] * $weight + $a[$n-1] * (1 - $weight);
}
}
var_dump($a);
Output
array (size=4)
0 => int 4
1 => float 3.5
2 => float 4
3 => float 4.5
array (size=4)
0 => int 4
1 => float 3.5
2 => float 4.25
3 => float 4.8333333333333
array (size=4)
0 => int 4
1 => float 3.5
2 => float 4.25
3 => float 5.125
