Functional searching

Functional thinking and searching , a key concept in engineering design, involves analyzing the true function of a technology by seeing it as a black box. By focusing on what you are trying to achieve, this approach broadens search criteria to uncover innovative solutions. An easy way to determine what a function is for your problem is to down problems into action, object, and environment components.

As such, you can find technologies that perform the function (and not the solution) of your problem, and you can leverage natural language processing to search based on word connections rather than isolated terms.

Example of functional thinking

Imagine you need to clean windows high up on a building, and you believe you need a higher ladder. Instead of just searching for ladders, which can be a solution to your probelm, you can use our functional thinking criteria and identify the function needed - increasing height to reach windows. This approach opens up the possibility of finding solutions beyond just ladders and you would start to find results that include ladders, telescopic arms, or even jet packs!

But functional thinking does not stop there, you can also consider different type of functions as cleaning windows of transparent surfaces. Searching with this function would provide you a completely different set of solutions as for instance hydrophobic coatings, robotic cleaners, or new detergents. By broadening the search criteria to include multiple functions, you increase the possibility of discovering new and innovative solutions.

Advantages of functional searching

Functional searching differs from traditional search methods as it focuses on specific functions rather than relying solely on popularity or click rates.

1. Finding multiple solutions with a common function

As shown before, this allows to find solutions outside of your field, but that execute the same function

1. Reduces irrelevant noise

Functional searching generates results that are directly relevant to the desired function, reducing the likelihood of irrelevant or unrelated information. For example, when searching for energy storage technologies, typical keyword searches may lead to identify the two sentences as correct:

• a graphene based battery stores within its cell the energy with a very high energy density

• The tools are stored in a warehouse of the energy department

However, IGOR^ AI, it will understand that store is a function acting on the object energy only in the first sentence, and you will not see results like the second line! This helps to reduce noice

1. Unbiased - Not dependent on # of clicks

As IGOR^AI as not been trained to bring up the most popular results, but the results that fit the most closely the function and the keywords, you are not biased towards a more popular solution that has been clicked more often and are entirely in control of your search.

This means functional searching generates results that are directly relevant to the desired function, reducing the likelihood of irrelevant or unrelated information. By utilizing natural language processing and the functional thinking approach, functional searching yields more targeted and comprehensive outcomes.

How does IGOR^AI understands functions?

Natural language processing (NLP) is a subfield of linguistics, computer science, and artificial intelligence concerned with the interactions between computers and human language, in particular how to program computers to process and analyze large amounts of natural language data. IGOR^ AI used NLP to compare your input functions to the functions in his database and recover the papers and abstracts that match this function.

For IGOR^AI, the text will look like a meaningful combination of words and syntax, of which it can extract the the verb (action) is applied on the Noun (the object).