Technology Analysis of Global Smart Furniture Development Using Patent Data

Abstract

The need for the exact overview of technology, which is the target for some purposes is often very crucial. Patent databases provide nowadays very suitable source of data and information which can be further analyzed. Global overview is thus possible to provide for any kind of technology. Smart Furniture is a very used term recently, which is related to current trends such as digitization, smart city or internet of things. Within these phenomena, Smart Furniture is used in different contexts, and so its concept is not clarified. The aim of the article is to show the technology analysis of Smart Furniture based on the patent data analysis and literature analysis by clustering and visualization. The definition of Smart Furniture was recently provided in literature based on previous research which was undertaken based on searching in scientific and patent databases. Thus, the term is defined by its technical properties and parameters. This definition is put into the context of actual trends of patents content with selected future trends. A patent analysis was undertaken between 20 October 2019 and 09 November 2019, while the Web of Science database was included, which was searched by keywords that included the phrase "Smart Furniture" and variants. Patent searching was performed in the PatentInspiration database. In total 31 articles from scientific database and 491 patent applications were examined against strict criteria containing meaningful definitions of Smart Furniture. Based on the analysis of key technologies and properties, clustering of results and their further analysis, it was found that the concept of smart furniture is specific to the following components: intelligent system, controller operated with user's data and energy sources, sensors and actuators.