Method and apparatus for solving problems, e.g., identifying specimens, using order of likeness matrices

Claim 1

APPARATUS FOR IDENTIFYING UNKNOWN SPECIMENS WITH MEMBERS OF A SET OF KNOWN PATTERNS, COMPRISING: (A) MEANS FOR COMPUTING AND STORING AN ORDER OF LIKENES MATRIX HAVING ONE ROW OF ELEMENTS FOR EACH PATTERN IN THE SET, SAID ROWS BEING ARRANGED IN A DEFINITIVE ORDER, EACH ROW BEING ARRANGED IN A OF THE CROSS-CORRELATION FUNCTIONS OF ONE PARTICULAR PATTERN AND EACH OF THE SET OF PATTERNS, SAID SUMS BEING ARRANGED IN THEIR NUMERICAL ORDER; SAID COMPUTING SAID STORING MEANS INCLUDING: (1) STORAGE MEANS FRO IDENTIFYING EACH ROW WITH SAID ONE PARTICULAR PATTERN; AND (2) STORAGE MEANS FOR IDENTIFYING EACH ELEMENT IN THE ROW WITH THE OTHER PATTERN WHICH IS A FACTOR IN THE CROSS-CORRELATION FUNCTION OF WHICH THE ELEMENT IS A SUM; (B) MEANS TO ASSEMBLE DATA DEFINING A SET OF UNLIKE UNRECOGNIZED SPECIMENS EQUAL IN NUMBER TO SAID SET OF UNKNOW PATTERNS; (C) MEANS FOR COMPUTING AND STORING AN ORDER OF LIKENESS MATRIX FOR THE SPECIMENS SIMILAR TO THE MEANS FOR COMPUTING AND STORING THE PATTERN MATRIX, EXCEPT THAT THE ROWS ARE ARRANGED IN RANDOM ORDER AND THE IDENTIFICATIONS STORED IN THE RESPECTIVE STORAGE MEANS ARE ARBITRARILY ASSIGNED; (D) MEANS FOR TENTATIVELY IDENTIFYING AT LEAST TWO MEMBERS OF THE SET OF SPECIMENS WITH A CORRESPONDING NUMBER OF MEMBERS OF THE SET OF KNOWN PATTERNS, THEREBY TENTATIVELY IDENTIFYING A CORRESPONDING NUMBER OF THE ROWS IN THE SPECIMEN MATRIX WITH RESPECTIVE ROWS IN THE PATTERN MATRIX; (E) MEANS TO SELECT, FROM THE ELEMENT IDENTIFYING STORAGE MEANS IN THE TENTATIVELY IDENTIFIED ROWS, A SET OF ELEMENT IDENTIFYING MEANS IN WHICH THE SAME ASSIGNED IDENFICATION SHOULD BE STORED IF THE TENTATIVE IDENTIFICATION IS CORRECT; (F) MEANS TO COMPARE THE SPECIMENS STORED IN THE SELECTED ELEMENT IDENTIFYING STORAGE MEANS, AND TO CONFIRM THE TENTATIVE IDENTIFICATION OF THE SPECIMENS IF THE COMPARISON SHOW EQUALITY; AND (G) MEANS TO REPEAT THE OPERATION OF THE TENTATIVE IDENTIFYING MEANS (D), THE SELECTING MEANS (E) AND THE COMPARING MEANS (F) UNTIL ALL THE ROWS IN THE SPECIMEN MATRIX HAVE CONFIRMED IDENTIFICATIONS WITH ROWS IN THE PATTERN MATRIX.