White PapersWhy Probabilistic Matching Fails to Deliver in Identity Resolution Solutions
Identity resolution is the process of discovering knowledge about entities residing in information systems. This seemingly trivial goal perfectly contrasts the nature of human thought as compared to computational modalities of information retrieval and utilization. This is clearly illustrated with identity resolution technologies to efficiently and accurately search and match voluminous stores of disparate data.
All digital representation of information reduces to sets of binary values. Problems of resolution have been addressed through increasing the granularity of objects by exploiting the availability of relatively inexpensive storage. To help illustrate this notion we can look no further than the adoption of digital photography. In its infancy, digital cameras failed to deliver the quality and resolution compared to their film brethren. For many years digital imagery was hampered by three major technological problems:
