Patent ID: 8725724

Claim:
A method of grouping objects in a dataset, comprising: (a) setting a bottom value and a top value for the number of groups selected for the objects in the dataset, initializing the number of groups to the bottom value; (b) performing each of a plurality of different grouping methods on the objects in the dataset, with each of said grouping methods dividing the dataset into the current value of the number of groups and with each of said grouping methods grouping all of the objects of the dataset into a set of groups such that objects within the same group are more similar to each other than objects within different groups within the number of groups and wherein each object is placed only into a single group within the set of groups of each grouping method; (c) analyzing the results of said different grouping methods in order to detect similarities among groups in different sets of groups; (d) associating similar groups that appear in different sets of groups, based on the similarities detected in step (c); (e) calculating a quality criterion for said association of step (d); (f) performing steps (b) to (e) on all instances of the number of groups from the bottom value to the top value; and (g) constructing an improved grouping of the dataset based on the associations of step (d) and the best number of groups according to the optima reached by the quality criterion of step (e).