A METHOD AND DEVICE FOR GROUPING DYNAMICALLY VARYING LIMITED RANGE ENTITIES FOR RAPID SEARCHING

摘要

The present invention relates to the field of topological searches and more particularly to a method and device for selecting functional entities in a topological space. It utilizes standard physical space partioning techniques along with entity characteristics to distribute them into limited size overlapping sets. Partitioning is performed based on the functionality and location of the entity rather than on the morphology of the entity. A membership value, ranging from 0 to 1, is assigned to each entity associated with each set resulting in fuzzy characteristics for the sets. Dynamic variation in the range of effectiveness of the entity is accounted for by changing the memberships of the entities to the groups based on the varying range of effectiveness. A metric can be derived from the membership value list of each entity to enable a unique single dimensional comparison of two disparate entities that are described in many dimensions.