Patent ID: 7542991

Claim:
An apparatus for use in hazardous materials identification, comprising: a. a computer comprising an arithmetic processor unit, an output device, an input device and a computer memory; b. a first database comprising a multiplicity of records in the computer memory, wherein each of the multiplicity of records represents information about observable properties of one hazardous material, in the form of a bit sequence wherein each bit in the bit sequence can be assigned either a “present” value or an “absent” value and wherein each bit in the bit sequence represents a member of the group consisting of normalized descriptors of an observable property of a hazardous material, special modifiers, and unassigned positions; c. a computer representation in the computer memory, of response information relevant to use with the hazardous materials represented in the first sequential list; d. computer logic and resources adapted to i) display a plurality of property lists on the output device of the type from which a user can make selections, wherein each property list pertains to an observable property, and lists choices which are either normalized descriptors of the observable property or special modifiers pertaining to the observable property; ii) accept at least one selection from the user from the input device from at least one of the plurality of property lists said at least one selection being either a normalized descriptor or a special modifier and wherein the at least one selection may comprise a plurality of different selections; iii) store in the computer memory a user defined selection from each property list from which at least one selection was made in the form of a user defined descriptor bitmap; iv) evaluate a record in the first database to determine whether a hazardous material represented by the record is a possible matching hazardous material based on at least one bitwise comparison of each user defined selection with the record; and v) report the hazardous material on the output device if it is a possible matching hazardous material.