Technology Commercialization Activation Model Using Imagification of Variables

Various institutions such as universities and corporations strive to commercialize technologies produced through R&D investment. The ideal way to commercialize technology is to transfer it, recognizing the value of the developed technology. Technology transfer is the transfer of technology from R&D entities, such as universities, research institutes, and companies, to others, with the advantage of spreading research results and maximizing cost efficiency. In other words, if enough technology is transferred, it can be commercialized. Although many institutions have various support measures to assist in transferring technology, there is no substitution for quantitative, objective methods. To solve this problem, this paper proposes a technology transfer prediction model based on the information found in patents. However, it is not realistic to include the information from all patents in the quantitative, objective method, so patterns related to technology transfer must be identified to select the appropriate patents that can be used in the predictive model. In addition, a method is needed to address the insufficient training data for the model. Training data are limited because some technology transfer information is not disclosed, and there is little technology transferred in new technology fields. The technology transfer prediction model proposed in this paper searches for hidden patterns related to technology transfer by imaging the patent information, which can also be applied to image analysis models. Furthermore, augmenting the data can solve the problem of the lack of learning data for technology transfer. To examine whether the proposed model can be used in real industries, we collected patents related to artificial intelligence technology registered in the United States and conducted experiments. The experimental results show that the models trained by imaging patent information performed excellently. Moreover, it was shown that the data augmentation technique can be used when there are insufficient data for technology transfer.