Why Multimedia Knowledge Bases?
As a result of global competition and rapid technological
progress, engineers seek quick and innovative solutions
for technical problems using fewer resources. This is
necessary in order to improve products and processes
so that a corporation can maintain its leadership in
and share of the market. It is possible to use one of
two approaches to solve a technical problem:
1. Independent problem research, personal search
for innovative solutions.
2. Reference to similar technical problems
that have previously been solved by other engineers
in the same or other domains. Knowledge transfer to
the problem in question.
Both approaches have their own drawbacks and benefits.
Let’s consider some of them. While conducting
personal research about the problem in question, there
is a risk of wasting time and resources on a problem
that has already been solved. On the other hand, when
you attempt to refer to a similar problem solution reached
by other engineers, the results might not always be
convincing. Practice shows that knowledge incorporated
in patents is in some cases insufficient to solve a
particular problem. The reasons for this might be summarized
as follows:
1. The majority of similar problems are found
in other domains. This makes the search for solutions
more complex, because the engineer is not aware of the
domains to explore for the problem in question.
2. The number of patents is rapidly increasing.
The procedure of searching and studying the pertinent
patents requires more time and effort.
3. Patents are legal documents. As a rule,
they contain some information that is irrelevant for
the engineer to solve a problem. The engineer has to
analytically extract problem-related information and
examine the essence of the problem described in the
patent.
A more unique and systematic approach to handle the
problem in question is to use Multimedia Knowledge Bases.
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