SBIR Phase II: An Analogous Search Engine to Accelerate Innovation

This SBIR Phase II project is developing a novel software platform for conducting analogous search that moves beyond keyword search to support innovation in the fields of science, engineering, and legal. Our patent pending technology is based on the observation that as high as 90% of new innovations are really adaptations of existing solutions. The challenge addressed by this research is how to find these adaptable, existing solutions that are spread across many different fields of study and are described using vastly different jargon. These efforts will greatly increase the discovery of new, innovative solutions to a myriad of engineering problems. The end result will be many new inventions that could greatly improve Americans? lives in unforeseen ways, the potential to produce new jobs and tax revenues. These efforts also will benefit Intellectual Property attorneys to help protect these new inventions in all fields of science and engineering. This project supports the National Science Foundation's mission to support all fundamental fields of science and engineering. The proposed research will further develop Analogy Finder, a novel software platform for conducting analogous search to enhance innovation. The technology is based on the observation that as much as 90% of new innovations are really adaptations of existing solutions. The technology enables engineers and scientists to move beyond keyword (literal) search to analogous (semantic) search to find relevant, adaptable solutions from other disciplines. Analogous search relies on the grammatical verb noun-phrase form, which describes the essential function needed to solve the problem (e.g., reduce concussions). This grammatical form is then transformed into a set of related search phrases using synonyms, key semantic connections, and a proprietary taxonomy. The resulting search output contains more relevant, adaptable solutions to the problem at hand when compared to keyword search. The objectives and methods to be used include: incorporate a unique problem visualization process; add more data sources to Analogy Finder's search capabilities; enable Analogy Finder to search based on multiple verb noun-phrase combinations; develop new ways to organize and prioritize results; and begin identifying metrics to compare Analogy Finder's results with other search engines.