Foundation of counters

After many adaption cycles the counter matrix reaches a characteristic distribution of counter values. As an example, a dimension with a sum of 131 of all counter values is shown below:

There is a steep descent of counter values. In the interval of

[ 0 ; 0.4 ]

high counter values belong to the tolerance options. The counter values 55, 43 and 30 represent the tolerance options 0.0, 0.2 and 0.4. A range of tolerance hypothesis is supported. The highest value of a tolerance option that is supportet is the tolerance option 0.4. The counter value of 30 represents the confirmation of the tolerance option 0.4. That means that at least one tolerance hypothesis was successfully applied in one test cycle. Non-ideal values of this factor are tolerable up to that value. A second interval

[ 0.6 ; 1 ]

is represented by the counter value of 1. The tolerance options 0.6, 0.8 and 1.0 obviously have not been confirmed. A counter value of 1 is already in the initial setup of the counter matrix. No further confirmations are indicated.

The next table shows a dimensions where there is no sharp border between confirmed and unconfirmed tolerance options. The tolerance option is represented by the counter value 5. That means this tolerance option has been confirmed by one or more adaption cycles.

Gradual decrease of counter values

Contrary to 0.0, 0.2, 0.4 and 0.6, 0.8 is only weakly confirmed and 1.0 not at all (as each tolerance option is represented by the value 1 anyway). The procedure requires to separate the interval of confirmed tolerance options from the interval of unconfirmed tolerance options. To determine that border, a threshold value has to mark this border. This threshold is a minimum value for the counter values to be considered as sufficiently confirmed. In the beginning of the procedure, this value has to be set. The confirmation of a counter value is well-founded, if it is higher than this threshold value. E.g. a tolerance option can be well-founded if its counter value is higher than half the maximum counter value.