METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DETERMINING AND ASSESSING INFORMATION TO BE COLLECTED BASED ON INFORMATION-THEORETIC MEASURES

摘要

A method, apparatus and computer program product for determining and assessing information collection from sources for a desired level of decision accuracy are presented (Figure 3). Operations include: receiving a partial set of information (300); performing a minimax entropy-based test check minimax test validity (302). With an invalid result, the information source is excluded from further consideration and minimax test is repeated; with a valid result, a cost/benefit analysis (306) determines whether to gather the information. If cost/benefit analysis succeeds, the information is gathered. Otherwise, the information source is excluded and minimax test is performed again. A consistency check (308) ensures validity of the information prior to restarting the process. Thus, the set of information is iteratively augmented until there is no information to add or until adding information would be cost-prohibitive.