Patent attributes
A monitoring system for determining the condition of an object includes an empirical model with reference data that indicates the normal operational state of the object, and input pattern arrays. Each input pattern array has a plurality of time-ordered input vectors, while each input vector has input values representing a plurality of parameters indicating the current condition of the object. The empirical model generates estimate values based on a calculation that uses an input pattern array and the reference data to determine a similarity measure between the input values and reference data. A differencing module compares the estimates values to the corresponding input values so that resulting values from the comparison can be used to determine the condition of the object.