SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR IDENTIFYING ENTITY REPRESENTATIONS BASED ON A SEARCH QUERY USING FIELD MATCH TEMPLATES

• US 20100005078A1
• Filed: 07/02/2009
• Published: 01/07/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/02/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LexisNexis Risk Solutions, Inc. (RELX PLC)
• Original Assignee: LexisNexis Risk & Information Analytics Group, Inc. (RELX PLC)
• Inventors: BAYLISS, David Alan
• Granted Patent: US 8,285,725 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/4
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/215 Improving data quality; Data cleansing, e.g. de-duplication, removing invalid entries or correcting typographical errors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24 Querying
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking

Abstract

Disclosed is a system for, and method of, identifying a universal entity representation in an electronic universal database that corresponds to a foreign entity representation in an electronic foreign database, each entity representation including a plurality of linked records, each record including a plurality of fields, each field capable of containing a field value, each field value associated with a field value weight. The system and method include constructing a plurality of field match templates, wherein at least one field match template comprises a fixed field portion, an optional field portion, and an extra-credit field portion, the fixed field portion designating at least one field of a record as fixed, the optional field portion designating at least one field of a record as optional, the extra-credit field portion designating at least one field of a record as extra-credit, wherein an arbitrary record is considered to match an arbitrary query if a fixed field of the arbitrary record is populated with a field value that matches a corresponding fixed field value of the arbitrary query and an optional field of the arbitrary record is populated with one of a null field value and a field value that matches a corresponding optional field value of the arbitrary query. The system and method also providing a plurality of distributed tables, each distributed table being associated with a field match template and storing a plurality of records sorted in a list according to a plurality of fields of the field match template, wherein each record is associated with one or more entity representations. The system and method further include receiving, using a computing apparatus, a query identifying or constraining a plurality of field values, the query associated with a record in the foreign database. The system and method further include comparing, using a computing apparatus, the query to a plurality of field values of the plurality of fields of the plurality of distributed tables to identify an entity representation in the universal database that corresponds to the query based on field designations specified by the field match template. The system and method even further include outputting, using a computing apparatus, an identifier for the identified entity representation.

Claims

1. A method of identifying a universal entity representation in an electronic universal database that corresponds to a foreign entity representation in an electronic foreign database, each entity representation comprising a plurality of linked records, each record comprising a plurality of fields, each field capable of containing a field value, each field value associated with a field value weight, the method comprising:

constructing a plurality of field match templates, wherein at least one field match template comprises a fixed field portion, an optional field portion, and an extra-credit field portion, the fixed field portion designating at least one field of a record as fixed, the optional field portion designating at least one field of a record as optional, the extra-credit field portion designating at least one field of a record as extra-credit, wherein an arbitrary record is considered to match an arbitrary query if a fixed field of the arbitrary record is populated with a field value that matches a corresponding fixed field value of the arbitrary query and an optional field of the arbitrary record is populated with one of a null field value and a field value that matches a corresponding optional field value of the arbitrary query;

providing a plurality of distributed tables, each distributed table being associated with a field match template and storing a plurality of records sorted in a list according to a plurality of fields of the field match template, wherein each record is associated with one or more entity representations;

receiving, using a computing apparatus, a query identifying or constraining a plurality of field values, the query associated with a record in the foreign database;

comparing, using a computing apparatus, the query to a plurality of field values of the plurality of fields of the plurality of distributed tables to identify an entity representation in the universal database that corresponds to the query based on field designations specified by the field match template; and

outputting, using a computing apparatus, an identifier for the identified entity representation.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the constructing is based on at least one or more query logs associated with the universal database.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein a null field value of an extra-credit field of a record is not counted toward a match score.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein a field value of an extra-credit field of a record that does not match a corresponding extra-credit field value of a query is not counted toward a match score.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein a field value of an extra-credit field of a record that matches a corresponding extra-credit field value of a query is counted toward a match score.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein each field match template comprises a definitive identifier field.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the definitive identifier field is positioned after the fixed field portion of each field match template.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the definitive identifier field is positioned after the optional field portion of each field match template.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the definitive identifier field is positioned before the extra credit field portion of each field match template.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of comparing further comprises determining a highest ranked entity representation according to summed field value weights for field values matching the query.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the step of comparing further comprises calculating a confidence level reflecting a likelihood that the highest ranked entity representation corresponds to the query.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the step of outputting further comprises outputting, if the confidence level exceeds a predetermined threshold, an identifier for the highest ranked entity representation.

13. A system of identifying a universal entity representation in an electronic universal database that corresponds to a foreign entity representation in an electronic foreign database, each entity representation comprising a plurality of linked records, each record comprising a plurality of fields, each field capable of containing a field value, each field value associated with a field value weight, the method comprising:

a computing apparatus configured to construct a plurality of field match templates, wherein at least one field match template comprises a fixed field portion, an optional field portion, and an extra-credit field portion, the fixed field portion designating at least one field of a record as fixed, the optional field portion designating at least one field of a record as optional, the extra-credit field portion designating at least one field of a record as extra-credit, wherein an arbitrary record is considered to match an arbitrary query if a fixed field of the arbitrary record is populated with a field value that matches a corresponding fixed field value of the arbitrary query and an optional field of the arbitrary record is populated with one of a null field value and a field value that matches a corresponding optional field value of the arbitrary query;

a computing apparatus configured to provide a plurality of distributed tables, each distributed table being associated with a field match template and storing a plurality of records sorted in a list according to a plurality of fields of the field match template, wherein each record is associated with one or more entity representations;

a computing apparatus configured to receive a query identifying or constraining a plurality of field values, the query associated with a record in the foreign database;

a computing apparatus configured to compare the query to a plurality of field values of the plurality of fields of the plurality of distributed tables to identify an entity representation in the universal database that corresponds to the query based on field designations specified by the field match template; and

a computing apparatus configured to output an identifier for the identified entity representation.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the constructing is based on at least one or more query logs associated with the universal database.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein a null field value of an extra-credit field of a record is not counted toward a match score.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein a field value of an extra-credit field of a record that does not match a corresponding extra-credit field value of a query is not counted toward a match score.

17. The system of claim 13, wherein a field value of an extra-credit field of a record that matches a corresponding extra-credit field value of a query is counted toward a match score.

18. The system of claim 13, wherein each field match template comprises a definitive identifier field.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the definitive identifier field is positioned after the fixed field portion of each field match template.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the definitive identifier field is positioned after the optional field portion of each field match template.

21. The system of claim 18, wherein the definitive identifier field is positioned before the extra credit field portion of each field match template.

22. The system of claim 13, wherein the computing apparatus is further configured to compare by determining a highest ranked entity representation according to summed field value weights for field values matching the query.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the computing apparatus is further configured to compare by calculating a confidence level reflecting a likelihood that the highest ranked entity representation corresponds to the query.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the computing apparatus is further configured to output by outputting, if the confidence level exceeds a predetermined threshold, an identifier for the highest ranked entity representation.