Patent Document ID: 20130173173
Application ID: 13688133
Patent Flag: 0

Claim One:
1. A method of automatically removing a step discontinuity in data representing a growth process, the method comprising: receiving a dataset representing a growth process, the dataset including a plurality of data points, each data point having a pair of coordinate values; calculating a first approximation of a curve that fits the dataset by applying a non-linear regression process to a first non-linear function to determine parameters of the first function, said parameters including a step discontinuity parameter; calculating a second approximation of a curve that fits the dataset by applying a second regression process to a second non-linear function to determine parameters of the second function, said parameters of the second function including a step discontinuity parameter; determining an information coefficient for each of the first and second approximations; selecting one of the approximations based on the information coefficient; determining a confidence interval of the step discontinuity parameter for the selected approximation; and if the confidence interval does not include the value zero, replacing a portion of the dataset with the selected approximation with the corresponding step discontinuity parameter set to zero.