US Patent 9009029 Semantic hashing in entity resolution

According to one aspect, a computer-implemented method for entity resolution is disclosed. In one embodiment, the method includes generating a semantic hash for an entity having an assigned entity identifier (ID) and, upon the occurrence of an entity milestone, changing the entity ID. The method further includes generating a semantic hash for the entity having the changed entity ID, and maintaining history information associated with the entity and corresponding entity IDs and semantic hashes over a period of time that includes a plurality of entity milestones. The method also includes periodically removing at least one set of older entities and retaining entity IDs and semantic hashes associated with the removed entities.