Title: Smart wearable technologies: state of the art and evolution over time through patent analysis and clustering

Authors: Milad Dehghani; Rosa Maria Dangelico

Addresses: Department of Computer, Control, and Management Engineering, Sapienza University of Rome, Via Ariosto 25, 00185, Rome, Italy ' Department of Computer, Control, and Management Engineering, Sapienza University of Rome, Via Ariosto 25, 00185, Rome, Italy

Abstract: The successful introduction and application of smart wearable technologies (SWTs) will allow the production of new generations of innovative and high value-added products. To this aim, we have built a unique database of 1313 patents included in the Thomson Innovation database, which were registered between 2001 and 2015 in the SWTs domain. This study shows the development trends in SWTs both in general and in different products classes, identifies leading countries and companies in different technological classes, and recognises basic patents within each year. Further, cluster analysis is used to identify the most relevant technological clusters and their evolution over time. This study offers a complete overview of the state of the art and of the evolution of SWTs over time, so providing important insights to researchers and managers who, based on this study results, will be able to make more informed decisions on research directions and technology strategies.

Keywords: wearable technology; smart devices; smart wearables; patent analysis; cluster analysis.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPD.2018.091148

International Journal of Product Development, 2018 Vol.22 No.4, pp.293 - 313

Received: 10 Mar 2017
Accepted: 19 Jan 2018
Published online: 11 Apr 2018 *

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