Patent ID: 7474985

Claim:
A method for detecting statistically significant changes in data, comprising the steps of: a) receiving and storing i th data in an array, where i is an index; b) determining a mean and standard deviation from consistent data for use with said i th data, and identifying and flagging non-conforming data from said array so that said consistent data exclude flagged non-conforming data if: i) no a prior mean and standard deviation are available, ii) if there are less than C consistent data stored in said array, iii) if a prior determined standard deviation equals zero, or iv) if a mean and standard deviation reset are required and there is at least C data in a subset of said array selected for use in said mean and standard deviation reset, where C is a positive integer; c) determining test statistics from said i th data and said mean and standard deviation determined in said step (b), wherein said test statistics include a signal length; d) flagging said i th data if said i th data is non-conforming; e) determining a direction of any signal, shift, or trend indicated by said data array at said i th data; f) determining if any said signal, shift, or trend is indicated by said i th data stored in said array at said i th data define a statistically significant signal, shift, or trend; g) displaying statistics representing said i th data stored in said array; and h) returning to said step (a) when (i+1) th data is available and if a continue process instruction is received.