Method for providing with a score an object, and decision-support system

A method for providing with a score an object represented by a target item from a multidimensional space, said score being representative of the probability that the object satisfies a given binary property, said method being performed in a computer environment comprising processing means connected to memory means, comprising the following steps:

• (a) providing and storing in the memory means data representative of a set of sample items from said multidimensional space, each sample item being associated with a binary label indicating if an object represented by said example item satisfies or not the given binary property;
• (b) storing in the memory means data representative of the target item;
• (c) with said processing means, generating and storing in said memory means data representative of an oriented binary tree with a given height, said binary tree being defined by a plurality of nodes having index values in relation with their position in the binary tree, said nodes comprising a root node, intermediate nodes and terminal nodes, and each node being associated with a subspace of the multidimensional space according to the following rules:
• if the node is a root node, the associated subspace is the whole multidimensional subspace;
• if the node is a non-terminal node, its associated subspace is split into two disjoint subspaces ε+ and ε− respectively associated with a first child node and a second child node of said non-terminal node, said splitting being performed by the processing unit according to a classifier minimizing the number of sample items which do not satisfy the given binary property to belong to the subspace ε+, and/or the number of sample items which satisfies the given binary property to belong to the subspace e−;
• (d) with said processing means, associating with at least each terminal node of the binary tree a score depending on its index value in the binary tree, and storing the score value in the memory means;
• (e) with said processing means, identifying a target node, the target node being a terminal node whose associated subspace comprises the target item;
• and
• (f) outputting the score value associated with said target node.