Patent ID: 7991579

Claim:
A statistical method for the analysis of inexact ordinal data having one or more variables to provide population comparison information to enable assigning a category for a given entity comprising the steps of: providing a computer having a memory for storing data for executing a computer software program for processing inexact ordinal data by carrying out steps (a)-(g): (a) at least partially ordering data retrieved from the memory by determining for all pairs of data the order of a first datum compared to a second datum as (i) superior, (ii) inferior, (iii) equal, or (iv) undecided to produce ordered data; (b) factorizing the partially ordered data; (c) generating a score for each of the first and second datum based on the at least partially ordered data; (d) estimating an information content for each of the scores; (e) generating a weight for each score based on the information content; (f) aggregating the scores and weights of all data using statistical methods for weighted rank scores, wherein the statistical methods comprise ranking, positioning, comparing, discriminating/regressing, and clustering; and (g) deciding which category the inexact ordinal data should be assigned to as part of the analysis; the decision maker acting on the assignment of the inexact ordinal data to the category to provide population comparison information to establish to which one of the categories to assign the entity.