Scientists develop new way to decipher hidden messages in symbols
(PhysOrg.com) -- Almost all information, in a sense, can be represented by symbols. In order to extract this embedded information, the symbols and the rules governing their sequence formation need to be deciphered. There are many examples of information residing in symbols, although the most familiar is probably written language. In addition to the sequences of letters that make up words, and sequences of words that make up sentences, there are lexical and grammatical rules that govern how letters and words can be combined, respectively, so that not all sequences of letters and words are possible. In a recent study, a group of scientists from Italy has developed a generic method to extract information from any type of symbolic sequential data, even when a "dictionary" of symbol sequences is not known beforehand.