Method and apparatus for providing a set of answers from an ordered or unordered set of possible answers

摘要

A method and apparatus for finding a set of good enough answers from a set of possible answers. The method includes the steps of defining a set of possible answers, grouping individual answers from the set of possible answers with similar answers, determining whether a first of the groupings of individual answers is distinctly different from the next of the groupings of individual answers, and defining the first of the groupings of the individual answers as a set of good enough answers if it is determined to be distinctly different from the next of the groupings.

主权项

1. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having a computer program stored thereon, the computer program causing a computer to perform the steps of:
(a) determining a set of possible elements; (b) ordering the set of possible elements according to one or more attributes, each of the ordered elements making up a group; (c) determining a first covariance only between a first of the groups and a second of the groups; (d) determining that the first group is a good enough subset of the ordered set of possible elements if the first covariance is greater than the predetermined threshold; (e) combining the first of the groups and the second of the groups to form a new first group of elements from the ordered set of possible elements if the first covariance is determined to be less than a predetermined threshold; (f) determining a second covariance between the new first group of elements and a next group of the ordered set of possible elements; (g) determining that the new first group is a good enough subset of the ordered set of possible elements if the second covariance is greater than the predetermined threshold; (h) combining the new first of the groups and the second of the groups to form a new first group of elements from the ordered set of possible elements if the second covariance is determined to be less than a predetermined threshold; and repeating steps (f)-(h) until the top group of elements is determined to be a good enough subset of the ordered set of possible elements.