This article reviews a way to automatically mine the Web for innovative requirements. Websites now commonly host user reviews filled with opinions about a product’s strengths and weaknesses. Publication of user reviews is so ingrained in the Web that it has spawned an entire field of study known as collaborative intelligence. Collaborative intelligence gathers the collective reasoning of multiple users to achieve some goal. While user and expert reviews offer a wealth of information about the needs and desires of the market, they are not the only source of requirements for innovation. Much the same method can be used to search patent databases for the same type of product attributes and requirements for innovation. Patent databases provide both complete and summary descriptions of already-envisioned inventions and offer a great deal of information about trends in current innovation. Requirements for innovation are changing in time. To keep up with these changes and to aid in the market acceptance of an idea, the mining of current requirements for innovation is crucial.
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November 2008
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Web Mining for Innovation
Automatically Combing User Reviews and Patent Databases Turns up Plenty of Innovative Ideas.
Andrew Kusiak is a professor of industrial engineering in the College of Engineering at the University of Iowa.
Joseph Engler is a senior software engineer at Rockwell Collins Inc. and an industrial engineering Ph.D. student at the University of Iowa.
Mechanical Engineering. Nov 2008, 130(11): 38-40 (3 pages)
Published Online: November 1, 2008
Citation
Engler, J., and Kusiak, A. (November 1, 2008). "Web Mining for Innovation." ASME. Mechanical Engineering. November 2008; 130(11): 38–40. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.2008-NOV-1
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