Patent ID: 8489924

Claim:
An evaluating apparatus comprising: an operation data storage unit configured to store operation data of a product, the operation data including an observation date, the observation date representing a date that observed the operational data; a labeling unit configured to apply a broken label, which indicates that a product is broken, to the operation data of the product that is broken within a designated period from an observation date of the operation data, apply an unbroken label, which indicates that a product is not broken, to the operation data of the product that is not broken within the designated period from the observation date, and apply neither the broken label nor the unbroken label to the operation data if it is unclear that the product is broken or not within the designated period from the observation date; a learning unit configured to learn the distribution of the operation data by using the operation data to which the broken label or the unbroken label is applied and the operation data to which neither the broken label nor the unbroken label is applied, in order to create a failure model in which a probability of product failure is modeled; and an evaluating unit configured to evaluate the probability of product failure based upon the failure model and the operation data, wherein the learning unit comprises: an expected value calculating unit configured to calculate an expected value of a likelihood indicating credibility of the failure model with respect to the operation date; and a likelihood maximization unit configured to calculate a parameter of the failure model that maximizes the expected value.