2017 Volume 53 Issue Supplement2 Pages S752-S753
Taiwan has been becoming an aging society. The potential market of the aging society is promising; following the government policy, many businesses have been involved in the development of related products for the senior. Designing senior product needs to focus on the ergonomic design and take into account human factors principles to improve the user satisfaction. According to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), patent information management could reduce resources input during research and development (R&D) stages; insufficient patent information might cause wasting resources. Blindly following the patent design around, on the other hand, might undermine the technological evolution trend of the product and violate the non-obvious patent criterion. This research proposes a systemic innovation design process for developing patentable and innovative assistive devices for the senior: (1) using patent analysis to reach (or exceed) the current technology level and avoid patent infringement; (2) applying TRIZ invention principles and the patent map to shorten the R&D duration; (3) combining the evolution trend theory with 9-Windows Method to facilitate conceptualizing the product design; (4) using the evolution trend theory to design a non-obvious patented product. A case-study was conducted by this research, validating the usability and feasibility of the proposed process. The research findings would support the business to develop valuable assistive devices, not only for benefitting the senior, but also for increasing the competitive advantages of the company.
