An extension for classification methods in order to process time-dependent
data is introduced. It is based on the detection of transitions from one st
eady state to another one by examination of the time derivatives of classif
ication vectors. The method is called Early Transition Detection (ETD). It
is shown that it can be used in conjunction with a number of common classif
ication methods like SIMCA or Artificial Neural Nets and it is successfully
tested on simulated and on real data. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All r
ights reserved.