Method for statistical object identification

The present invention provides a mechanism to communicate an original object (12S) without requiring the sending of the complete original object. A representative of the original object (12S), a statistical object (14S), is generated by one entity and is communicated to a second entity. The second entity receives the statistical object (14S), and identifies it as being generated from an original object (12S). If the second entity is unable to unambiguously identify the statistical object (14S), the second entity records the partial identity progress and associated communications characteristics information (22). The amount of information communicated during this process is much smaller than the original object (12S), greatly improving the speed and efficiency of communicating an original object (12S).