Fry analysis offers a visual approach to quantify characteristic spatial trends for groups of point objects. The technique was originally designed to quantify finite strain based on a 2-D analysis of the nearest neighbours to a central reference point, assuming that the original distribution pattern was random.

Fry analysis can also be used to search for anisotropies in the distribution of point objects. More specifically it can be used to investigate if a distribution of point objects occurs along linear trends, and whether such linear trends occur at a characteristic spacing.