Patent ID: 8612029

Claim:
A system comprising: at least one piece of equipment; a state detector adapted to measure one or more operating parameters of the equipment; a signature generator adapted to encode a plurality of data streams from the state detector into an operating signature for the equipment, wherein the plurality of data streams comprises a data value from the state detector, and wherein encoding the data value comprises: identifying a first encode key specifying a first numeric value and a first bit location in the operating signature and a second encode key specifying a second numeric value and a second bit location in the operating signature, wherein the first encode key and the second encode key are associated with the state detector, setting a bit at the first bit location when the data value is above the first numeric value, and setting a bit at the second bit location when the data value is below the second numeric value; and a health engine adapted to determine how the equipment's operation is changing over time based on the operating signature.