Morph-fitting: An effective technique of approximation

An algorithm has been developed and programmed which fits a minimum number of basic patterns, morphs, to a sequence of data points. The dependent variable is given as a scalar value; the independent variable is ‘time-like’ and can represent continuous or discrete time or an event counter. The morphs fitted are an indefinite number of occurrences of trends (straight lines), step functions, and sudden changes (peaks of short time duration). Delay functions span over periods characterized by uninterpretable events.