Patent ID: 7962804

Claim:
A method of performing fault analysis using numerically coded time series data from a plurality of printers, the method comprising: receiving first time series data for a machine variable for a first printer, wherein the first time series data comprises a plurality of first time entries and an associated first data value for each first time entry; receiving second time series data for the machine variable for a plurality of second printers, wherein the second time series data comprises a plurality of second time entries and an associated second data value for each second time entry; for each second printer: initializing one or more similarity values, for each first time entry in the first time series data: for each second time entry in the second time series data: evaluating a cost function based on the first data value associated with the first time entry and the second data value associated with the second time entry to determine a cost value, calculating a minimum similarity value from one or more previously calculated similarity values, summing the minimum similarity value and the cost value to produce a similarity value associated with the first time entry and the second time entry, and storing the similarity value associated with the first time entry and the second time entry, and setting the similarity measurement to the similarity value associated with the last first time entry and the last second time entry; determining one or more closest matching second printers based on the similarity measurements; and displaying an association between the first printer and each closest matching second printer.