Patent ID: 6370437
Filing Date: 2002-04-09
Classification: G05B

Abstract:
A method of predicting a future value of a series of product data measured at irregular time intervals and comprising a plurality of values each measured from a different product, the method comprising the steps of:(i) forming a set of vectors wherein each vector comprises a number of successive values of the series of product data; (ii) identifying from said set of vectors, a current vector which comprises a most recent value of the series of product data; (iii) identifying at least one nearest neighbour vector from said set of vectors, wherein for each nearest neighbour vector a measure of similarity between that nearest neighbour vector and the current vector is less than a threshold value; (iv) for each nearest neighbour vector, determining a corresponding vector, each corresponding vector comprising values of the series of product data that are a specified number of data values ahead of the data values of the nearest neighbour vector in said series of product data; and (v) calculating the predicted future value of the series of product data on the basis of at least some of the corresponding vector(s).