Development of Black Oak’s High Performance Entity Resolution system (HiPER) began in 2009 and the first release (version 1.0) was completed in 2011. By 2012, HiPER version 1 was in use, and is still used today.
The original release of HiPER runs locally and has advanced matching functions including Boolean and Scoring Rules. The initial inspiration for the product began several years ago in an Entity Resolution graduate course at UALR and now holds a place as a powerful professional grade matching system.
HiPER is a unique ER engine for several reasons.
Duplicates are common in large collections of identity data, and most systems select a duplicate to pass on while destroying the others. Our system retains broken and orphaned data, which increases the reliability of our data and increases our match rate. Additionally, our system has traceability functions tracking exactly when and why records are changed, and our system allows people to make assertions to the matching logic. Because of these features, our clients are able to carefully control the quality of their data. While this product is still being operated and sold, development of the system has slowed as our HiPER team focuses on HiPER version 2.0.