| Abstract
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This paper addresses two questions about c … This paper addresses two questions about computational innovativedesign: (1) How can a computer program recognize a good analogue forinnovative design?, and (2) How can it efficiently find one, once itknows how to recognize it? We answer question 1 by presenting aheuristic mapping engine that evaluates a candidate analogy based onfeatures of the mappings between the devices' structures, behaviors, andfunctions. We answer question 2 by presenting a heuristic module thatguides a knowledge base search toward successively more useful andinnovative analogies, as evaluated by the mapping engine. These twoheuristic modules are used by Knowledge-Directed Spreading Activation,a general analogy retrieval algorithm well-suited to findingsemantically distant analogues. We describe in detail the heuristicmodules used by KDSA to find analogues for innovative design, and wediscuss the computer implementation of these modules, in aconceptual-level innovative design program called IDA. evel innovative design program called IDA.
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