A method for estimating velocity dispersion in seismic surface waves in massive 3-D data sets that improves upon auto-picking of a curve along the peak or ridge of the magnitude of the beam-formed field. A signal production circuit produces a signal for driving a display section so that light of divisional light amounts obtained by dividing light amounts corresponding to bits which compose digital values which are pixel values may be emitted in a such manner as to be distributed within a time corresponding to one screen. The symbol detector detects if a starting symbol exists in the test result pattern. The methods can be used in fields such as epigenetics or oncology to selectively concentrate or detect the presence of specific biomolecules or differentially modified biomolecules, to provide diagnostics for disorders such as fetal genetic disorders, to detect biomarkers in cancer, organ failure, disease states, infection or the like.