Patent ID: 6931351

Claim:
A method for determining a manner of classifying data samples in one of a number of predetermined classes comprising first and second classes, said method comprising: associating a plurality of data classifiers in a decision fusion application comprising said data samples, wherein said data classifiers indicate a manner of classifying said data sample in said one of a number of fast classes; computing sample confidence values for each data sample; determining an overall confidence value for said first classes using said sample confidence values; assigning a weight value for each of said plurality of data classifiers as a function of said overall confidence value and said sample confidence values; classifying each said data sample in a second class by calculating a combined log-likelihood value for each second class, wherein said log-likelihood comprises a summation of likelihoods of said plurality of data classifiers weighted by said weight value; and classifying a calculated second class as a correct class for a particular data sample by selecting a particular second class with a highest calculated combined log-likelihood value.