Patent ID: 6263337
Filing Date: 2001-07-17
Classification: G06F,G06K,Y10S

Abstract:
In a computer system, a method for clustering of data records into data clusters comprising the steps of:a) initializing a clustering model for a plurality of data clusters by initializing a data distribution for each cluster of said plurality K of data clusters;b) obtaining a data portion made up of data records from a database stored on a storage medium;c) assigning data records from the data portion obtained from the database to the clustering model by scaling the data records with a weighting factor based upon the data distribution for each of the K clusters, and modifying the data distribution for the plurality of the data clusters in the cluster model by combining at least some of the data records from the data portion that have been scaled by a weighting factor with one or more clusters of the clustering model;d) summarizing at least some of the data records contained within the data portion obtained from the database based upon a compression criteria to produce sufficient statistics for data records satisfying the compression criteria; ande) continuing to obtain portions of data from the database and updating the clustering model based on newly sampled data records from the database and the sufficient statistics based on the contents of data records that were previously summarized until a specified clustering criteria has been satisfied.