Patent US 5,202,955

A set of confluences is deemed to be inconsistent by determining that there exists no set of values that can be assigned to all unknown variables of the confluences which result in a consistent set of predictions. Values are iteratively assigned to variables until either all unknown variables have been assigned a value or until a determination is made that no value of a particular variable will result in a consistent set of predictions. Values are assigned first to variables which appear in confluences having only two unknowns and then said values are propagated through the confluences of the hypothesis.