Abstract: A system and method for selecting from a set of output actions for combinatory situations such as medical diagnosis defined by a pluality of input parameters. A decision making structure is established by an expert having a plurality of linked nodes. Random values of the input parameters are generated, which includes biasing the random values by a function of a preceding response. The steps are repeated until a sufficient number of responses having a predetermined statistical significance is achieved for each node. After this set up and teaching, the accuracy of the systems's predictions may be verified against actual responses by the expert. The decision making structure may be interrogated by entering a situation to be analyzed. The path the expert would take through the decision making structure is predicted by determining the probability of the expert's response at each mode in the structure to arrive at an output action.

Abstract: A system and method for selecting from a set of output actions for combinatory situations such as medical diagnosis defined by a plurality of input parameters. A decision making structure is established by an expert having a plurality of linked nodes. Random values of the input parameters are generated, which includes biasing the random values by a function of a preceding response. The steps are repeated until a sufficient number of responses having a predetermined statistical significance is achieved for each node. After this set up and teaching, the accuracy of the system's predictions may be verified against actual responses by the expert. The decision making structure may be interrogated by entering a situation to be analyzed. The path the expert would take through the decision making structure is predicted by determining the probability of the expert's response at each node in the structure to arrive at an output action.

Abstract: Three-dimensional (3-D) topographic data defining a remote surface in terms of the 3-D positions of M.times.N sample points on that surface may be obtained by (1) illuminating the scene with an array of M.times.N (simultaneous) laser beams, (2) sequencing the array of laser beams through a series of mathematical patterns (space coding) by means of a programmable electro-optic shutter, (3) recording by an imaging device the illumination reflected from the surface during the projection of each mathematical pattern, (4) analyzing the images to obtain the three-dimensional locations of each of the M.times.N illuminated points on the surface which are visible to the camera or imaging device, and (5) determining which of the laser beams in the array are not visible to the imaging device. (N and M are any positive integers consistent with the device proposed; typically M=N=128, so that M.times.N=16384 points.