The disclosed subject matter comprises a sensor management component (SMC) that facilitates accurately determining a desired switching state of a sensor and controlling the switching state of the sensor to reduce unwanted effects of ambient noise. The SMC samples pre-pulses, pulses, and post-pulses of a signal transmitted from a transmitter of the sensor, determines level of ambient noise associated with the signal based on levels of the pre-pulse sample and the post-pulse sample, and determines the pulse amplitude as a function of the pulse level and the levels of the pre-pulse and post-pulse samples to facilitate accurate state determinations for the sensor. The SMC can determine the state the sensor is to be in at a given time based on the number of good pulses received. The SMC can employ linear or non-linear filtering to remove spike or random noise to further facilitate accurate state determinations for the sensor.