Patent ID: 8244689

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of determining if a first object and a second object represent a same entity, the method comprising: identifying one or more common attributes between the first object and the second object, wherein the first object and the second object are included in a fact repository located on one or more computer systems; determining an entropy for each of the one or more common attributes, wherein a respective entropy for a respective attribute in the one or more common attributes comprises a respective numeric value measuring a respective amount of information carried by the respective attribute; identifying a subset of the one or more common attributes whose respective values are equivalent; determining whether the first object and the second object represent the same entity by comparing a sum of entropies for the subset of the one or more common attributes to an entropy threshold measure; and in response to determining that the first object and the second object represent the same entity, merging the first object and the second object in the fact repository.