Patent given for 'sense engine'

Already patented in the UK, this additional technology patent secures the core innovation of the Crystal Semantics' Sense Engine, which can identify different meanings for the same word.

The patent is for a database containing a "plurality of terms", which are used to define and classify the particular subject.

For example, the engine will be able to separate the meaning of the word “depression” in relation to economics or in the context of mental health.

Crystal Semantics' patent was filed in 1999, a time when the technology was focused upon the classification and categorization of documents, spell checking and refining keywords as part of a search query.

Ian Saunders, managing director at Crystal Semantics, said: "Over the past few years we have changed the way marketers reach consumers online. This new U.S. patent will pave the way for a whole new era in context targeting in order that consumers receive quality and not quantity of ads and search results."

David Crystal, chairman and founder of the firm, spent 3 years analysing about 100,000 words from the English dictionary and found an average of 2.5 meanings associated with each word.

The professor of linguistics used this knowledge to build technology which the firm claims has helped boost web search accuracy from 20% to 95%.