Patent ID: 8150793

Claim:
A fusion method for fusing M rankings generated by M judges where M is an integer greater than unity, the fusion method comprising: computing values of an aggregation function for items in a union of items of the M rankings, the aggregation function including a sum of pairwise conjunctions of ranking values of different judges for an input item, wherein the aggregation function has an output quantitatively equal to A(i) where A(i) is given by: A ⁡ ( i ) = ∑ j = 1 M ⁢ S j ⁡ ( i ) + ∑ 1 ≤ j < j ′ ≤ M ⁢ T ⁡ ( S j ⁡ ( i ) , S j ′ ⁡ ( i ) ) where the index i indexes the input item in the union of items of the M rankings, S j (i) denotes the ranking value for input item i generated by a judge indexed by j of the M judges, and T(. . .) denotes a triangular norm; constructing an aggregation ranking of items in the union of items of the M rankings based on the computed values of the aggregation function; and outputting informational content embodying the aggregation ranking.