Patent ID: 7035849
Filing Date: 2006-04-25
Classification: G06F,G16H,Y10S

Abstract:
1. A method of uniquely identifying an object record in a computer database of object records according to a plurality of ranked exact and probabilistic search rules, comprising the steps of: obtaining application identification information and attributes of a target object; executing one or more exact-match search rules to search the database of object records for the target object; executing one or more user defined probabilistic search rules to search the database of object records for the target object if the exact-match search rules retrieve no object record identical to the obtained application identification information and attributes, wherein a list of probable matches to the target object are retrieved and ranked by degree of match probability; receiving user input of selection of one retrieved object record determined to be the target object record; updating the database of object records in real time for the selected target object with new attributes and information associated with the target object; determining an efficiency measure for each of the exact-match and probabilistic search rules according to a plurality of collected statistics for each search rule; where the efficiency measure measures how efficient a corresponding search rule is in finding a match with the target record; and adjusting a sequence of execution of the exact-match and probabilistic search rules in descending order by efficiency measure, wherein one of the collected statistcs corresponds to a number of instances that one of the probabilistic search rules retrieves one or more possible matches to the target object record, or to a number of instances that one of the probabilistic search rules retrieves a record previously retrieved by a previously executed search rule, or to a number of instances that one of the probabilistic search rules retieves a record that was not retrieved by a previously executed search rule, or to a number of instances that one of the probabilistic search rules retrieves a plurality of records subsequently determined to correspond to the target object record, or to a number of retrieved records that are determined not to be the target object record.