Patent ID: 8239338

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: an analytic network process (ANP) storage memory that stores an ANP weighted supermatrix representing an ANP model; and a processor in communication with the ANP storage memory, the processor being configured to facilitate measuring how alternatives synthesize with respect to a fixed node in the stored ANP weighted supermatrix to determine a perspective metric vector for the fixed node; and maintaining a same proportionality in the stored ANP weighted supermatrix for the measuring of the perspective metric vector for the fixed node, the perspective metric vector being measured consistent with at least one of the formulas: a synthesized value of alternative i from the perspective of the fixed node r being p r , i = lim p → 1 ⁢ s r , i ⁡ ( p ) ; and a total synthesized vector being denoted by p r =( p r,1 , . . . , p r,a ) A being the ANP model, W being the weighted supermatrix of a single level of the ANP model (of dimensions n×n), W(p) being a family of row perturbations of row 1<r<n of W, s r,i (p) the synthesized score for alternative i for the family of ANP row perturbations of row r at parameter value p, A(p) being the induced family of ANP models, the ANP model having a alternatives.