Patent ID: 8108241

Claim:
An electronic method of representing changes and associations of a plurality of entity instances, comprising: a. representing each of said plurality of entity instances as a separate cell body comprising a plurality of cell components, wherein a particular cell body is identifiable as representing a particular entity instance of the plurality of entity instances; b. ensuring that the plurality of cell components comprise physical, functional and content cell component types; c. associating each of said entity instances with at least two attributes; d. assigning at least one of the at least two attributes one of at least two possible mutually exclusive attribute values; e. for each cell component of the plurality of cell components: i. defining, on a computer, at least one possible attribute to cell component association; ii. designating, on the computer, one of the possible attribute to cell component associations as a currently active association for the cell component; iii. permitting the cell component to be assigned one of at least two mutually exclusive cell component values; iv. permitting, on the computer, at least one possible input/output value mapping of said attribute value to said cell component value to be assigned for each of said attribute to cell component associations; and v. permitting, on the computer, a change in at least one attribute value associated with the at least one possible input/output value mapping; f. arranging the cell bodies in one or more entity stacks, each stack associated with an attribute value category of a plurality of attribute value categories at an initial time T1, such that each attribute value category is associated with zero or more entity stacks, depending on the presence or absence of cell bodies associated with each said attribute value category at said initial time T1; g. using the computer, generating and displaying a configuration representing the plurality of entity instances and their respective attribute values as their separate cell bodies comprising the plurality of cell components and said cell component values respective to said currently active attribute association and the input/output value mapping, wherein the cell bodies are stacked according to said current attribute to category association, wherein the configuration is capable of being switched according to at least one different value mapping, attribute to cell component association, or attribute value category; h. moving, using the computer, at least one cell body of said cell bodies from its association with one stack, of the one or more entity stacks, to another of said entity stacks, either before or after a change in the attribute value associated with the entity instance represented by said moved cell body; and i. associating patterns, trends, changes or anomalies of at least one attribute value with patterns, trends, changes or anomalies of the separate cell bodies.