Patent ID: 7295950

Claim:
A method for monitoring real-time process of a monitored entity by a set of multiple data channels in order to detect abnormalities within the real-time process, where sensed inputs of various sensor values from the monitored entity are received in a computer system by a system interface module containing the set of multiple data channels, the method comprising: obtaining raw channel data over a time duration of information of an at least one monitored data channel contained in the system interface module of the computer system; processing said raw channel data in the computer system to form a set of time dependent signals based on at least one user specified processing rule; producing an at least one reportable alert based on a deviation value, where the deviation value is based on a deviation in behavior in the at least one monitored channel of the monitored entity; filtering said at least one reportable alert based on an at least one user specified filtering rule to form said at least one reportable alert, wherein said at least one user specified filtering rule is taken from a group of filtering rules consisting of: determining if a time difference between a most recent alert and a just previously reported alert exceeds a first user specified threshold; and determining if a difference in numeric alert levels between the most recent alert and the just previously reported alert exceeds a second user specified threshold; and reporting said at least one reportable alert to a system user, where said at least one reportable alert represents the deviation value, where the deviation value is a value between an actual value and an expected value of the at least one monitored channel, where the deviation value is produced by a deviation detector in the computer system, where the deviation value is based upon said set of time dependent signals for varying time intervals and comparing the set of time dependent signals with a set of historically normal baseline time dependent signals, and where said at least one reportable alert causes the system user to control the deviation in behavior in the real-time process of the monitored entity.