Patent ID: 8666911

Claim:
A method, comprising: obtaining a measured value at an input interface to a measurement system including at least a controller and a memory coupled to the controller; determining a histogram bin among a plurality of histogram bins stored within the memory for a range of values into which the measured value falls, wherein each range of values for a histogram bin is selected to obtain a corresponding one of a plurality of predetermined percentages of training values within the respective bin, the predetermined percentages defined based on a standard deviation (σ) of a set of training values, the plurality of histogram bins comprising: a null bin corresponding to ±½σ, first and second mid bins corresponding to +½σ to +2σ and −½σ to −2σ, respectively, first and second control bins corresponding to +2σ to +3σ and −2σ to −3σ, respectively, and first and second tail bins corresponding to +3σ to +6σ and −3σ to −6σ, respectively; and reporting, from the controller as a measurement result, a confidence interval associated with the histogram bin for the range of values into which the measured value falls, wherein the associated confidence interval is calculated based upon a distribution of a subset of the training values, the subset of the training values all falling within the range of values for the histogram bin.