Patent ID: 7209861

Claim:
A method for processing data to provide a forewarning of a critical event, comprising: acquiring a plurality of sets of data for a plurality of channels of data from monitoring at least one physical test subject or physical process; calculating a set of channel data for a selected parameter from the plurality of channels of data representing parameters that are calculated to provide the selected parameter; computing a renormalized measure of dissimilarity from distribution functions derived from a phase space for a selected channel of data; comparing said renormalized measure of dissimilarity to a threshold (U C ) for a number of occurrences (N OCC ) to indicate a condition change in said renormalized measure of dissimilarity; and detecting a simultaneous condition change in a plurality (N SIM ) of renormalized measures of dissimilarity to determine a forewarning of the critical event; and providing an output of at least one of a graph, a table of data or an observable signal by which a human observer can detect the forewarning of the critical event.