US Patent 8417648 Change analysis

Different virtual labels, for example, like +1 and −1, are assigned to two data sets. A change analysis problem for the two data sets is reduced to a supervised learning problem by using the virtual labels. Specifically, a classifier such as logical regression, decision tree and SVM is prepared and is trained by use of a data set obtained by merging the two data sets assigned the virtual labels. A feature selection function of the resultant classifier is used to rank and output both every attribute contributing to classification and its contribution rate.