ABSTRACT
People have been searching for patterns and trying to interpret them for centuries. Patterns are important regardless if the field of study is chemical, biological, archaeological, or commercial. Some patterns are regular in nature and occur often in data. They are typically straightforward to describe and tend to provide reassurance that the process of collecting the data is sound. These are not the patterns of interest in the field of data mining. They will be discovered during the process, but they will not remain at the center of attention for too long. It is the irregular, unexpected pattern that is sought. The patterns provide information previously unknown before the data was analyzed. Not all of these patterns will be meaningful or useful, but they might provide some insight or provoke further investigation and that is what is sought.
