Patent ID: 8838394

Claim:
An assay that is capable of unambiguously detecting the presence or absence of each of at least seven (7) analytes, in any combination of presence or absence, in a single sample volume without immobilization of said analytes, separation of said analytes, mass spectrometry, or melting curve analysis, wherein each of said analytes is encoded as a value of one component of a signal and wherein each of said analytes is encoded as at least one first value in a first component of said signal and at least one second value in a second component of said signal, and wherein said assay is capable of unambiguously detecting the presence or absence of M analytes, in any combination of presence or absence, where M=C*log 2 (F+1), where C is the number of said second values used to encode said analytes and F is the maximum cumulative value of said first component of said signal, for any second value, when all of said analytes are present and wherein M, C, and F are each positive integers.