Patent ID: 7890440

Claim:
A method of evaluating a group detection tool without knowledge regarding a composition of real-world groups to which individuals in an observed population belong, comprising: receiving, using a microprocessor, a set of data comprising a collection of asserted links between pairs of individuals; creating, using the microprocessor, a list of the individuals present in the collection of asserted links, each individual on the list being assigned a unique numerical identifier; creating, using the microprocessor, a square co-occurrence matrix describing the collection of asserted links, the square co-occurrence matrix comprising a plurality of rows and a plurality of columns each containing the list of individuals; inserting, using the microprocessor, a link indicator in each cell of the square co-occurrence matrix, the link indicator having a first value if a first individual associated with the row and a second individual associated with the column are linked and a second value if they are not; identifying, using the microprocessor, a plurality of square sub-co-occurrence matrices in the square co-occurrence matrix; generating, using the microprocessor, a statistic for a characteristic of at least one class of the plurality of square sub-co-occurrence matrices; identifying, using the microprocessor, one of the plurality of sub-co-occurrence matrices for each of the at least one class of square sub-co-occurrence matrices; and evaluating, using the microprocessor, the performance of the group detection tool by: applying the group detection tool to the set of data, and determining the extent to which a plurality of individuals in the at least one square sub-co-occurrence matrix are associated in one or more groups generated by the group detection tool.