Patent ID: 7809510

Claim:
A method for comparing at least a first sequence and a second sequence of letters from a finite alphabet by detecting and collating at least a first similarity and a second similarity between the first sequence and the second sequence comprising the steps of: (i) Projecting a two-dimensional sampling template onto at least a first and second sequence of fixed length, wherein the sampling template comprises a set of contiguously or non-contiguously diagonally spaced cells to thereby obtain subsequences corresponding to each of the at least first and second sequences; (ii) calculating a discrete countable value for each of the subsequences; (iii) creating a set of bins wherein each bin from the set corresponds to at least one of a plurality of discrete countable values; (iv) assigning each of the separate discrete countable values to a bin in the created set of bins; (v) if a plurality of separate discrete countable values associated with any of the at least first and second sequences are assigned to the same bin in the created set of bins, indicating a similarity between the sequences whose associated discrete countable values are in the same bin; (vi) performing steps (i) to (v) using a template comprising a different set of contiguously or non-contiguously diagonally spaced cells than the set of the previous template; (vii) collating any of the indicated similarities; wherein all of steps (i) to (vii) are performed on a computer.