An efficient algorithm for mining time interval-based patterns in large databases

Most studies on sequential pattern mining are mainly focused on time point-based event data. Few research efforts have elaborated on mining patterns from time interval-based event data. However, in many real applications, event usually persists for an interval of time. Since the relationships among event time intervals are intrinsically complex, mining time interval-based patterns in large database is really a challenging problem. In this paper, a novel approach, named as incision strategy and a new representation, called coincidence representation are proposed to simplify the processing of complex relations among event intervals. Then, an efficient algorithm, CTMiner (Coincidence Temporal Miner) is developed to discover frequent time-interval based patterns. The algorithm also employs two pruning techniques to reduce the search space effectively. Furthermore, experimental results show that CTMiner is not only efficient and scalable but also outperforms state-of-the-art algorithms.