Scan statistics

the long version

In many statistical applications the scientists have to analyze the occurrence of observed clusters of events in time or space. The scientists are especially interested to determine whether an observed cluster of events has occurred by chance if it is assumed that the events are distributed independently and uniformly over time or space. Applications of scan statistics have been recorded in many areas of science and technology including: geology, geography, medicine, minefield detection, molecular biology, photography, quality control and reliability theory and radio-optics.