TABLE OF CONTENTS Today we are inundated by data. This data deluge tends to overwhelm rather than be perceived for what it actually is: a significant asset for deriving competitive advantage. Realizing its value depends on the ability to extract and utilize nuggets of information and insight from these data.
Contemporary dictionaries do not make nice distinctions between data and information. We suggest thinking of data as quantitative or descriptive items of low intrinsic value, information as the enhanced result of data having been suitably organized, classified, correlated, or transformed, and knowledge as information processed so as to maximize its potential value by enabling effective strategies and decisions. The extraction of information from data can be viewed primitively as separating fat from meat, and the subsequent distillation of knowledge as digesting the meat. This process requires the recognition of patterns within data to uncover underlying governing phenomena as indicated in Figure 1.1, enhancing industrial operability and profitability.
The confluence of three major scientific and mathematical areas forms the foundation on which pattern recognition technology is based (Figure 1.2). These areas represent vast fields of human endeavor and achievement, in some cases spanning centuries of development, and have been and continue to be of...
