1. A method of pattern recognition comprising the steps of: generating a data store containing a set of known patterns having known attributes; distributing a predetermined portion of the data store to at least one processor, each processor having its own memory and storage, a predetermined portion of the data store being copied into the memory and storage of each processor; a director node having a communications path to at least one of the processors, the director node having the ability to distribute at least one unknown pattern to at least one of the processors; loading a digital pattern recognition engine on at least one of the processors, the engine having the ability to compare a first known pattern from the data store with an unknown pattern distributed to the processor from the director node to determine whether the patterns constitute a match based on predetermined criteria; if the comparison indicates a match, communicating to the director node that the unknown pattern matches the known pattern or a portion thereof, granting selected attributes of the known pattern and selected attributes identified by the engine to the unknown pattern, and storing the unknown pattern as a known pattern in the data store with the granted attributes if the unknown pattern meets predetermined variance criteria; if the comparison does not indicate a match, performing at least one of: flagging the unknown pattern; communicating that the comparison did not indicate a match; transmitting the unknown pattern to a user for manual identification; transmitting the unknown pattern to a director node for further processing; or storing the unknown pattern for further processing.