Coincidence detection method, products and apparatus

A coincidence detection method for use with a data set of objects, said objects having a number of attributes, the method comprising the steps of:

• sampling various subsets of the data set for a plurality of iterations, each iteration the sampled subset of the data set having for each object the same subset of attributes;
• detecting, and recording counts of, coincidences in each sampled subset of the data set, a coincidence being the co-occurrence of a plurality of attribute values in one or more objects in a sampled subset of the data set, where the plurality of attribute values is the same for each occurrence, the detecting and recording counts of coincidences in each sampled subset of the data set being performed before, at the same time or after sampling, detecting and recording counts of coincidences in other subsets;
• determining an expected count for each coincidence of interest that has been detected in the previous step;
• comparing, for each coincidence of interest, the observed count of coincidences versus the expected count of coincidences, and from this comparison determining a measure of correlation for the plurality of attributes for the coincidence;
• and
• reporting a set of k-tuples of correlated attributes, where a k-tuple of correlated attributes is a plurality of attributes for which the measure of correlation is above a respective pre-determined threshold.