Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to propose an objective method for technology forecasting (TF). For the construction of the proposed model, the paper aims to consider new approaches to patent mapping and clustering. In addition, the paper aims to introduce a matrix map and K-medoids clustering based on support vector clustering (KM-SVC) for vacant TF. Design/methodology/approach -TF is an important research and development (R&D) policy issue for both companies and government. Vacant TF is one of the key technological planning methods for improving the competitive power of firms and governments. In general, a forecasting process is facilitated subjectively based on the researcher's knowledge, resulting in unstable TF performance. In this paper, the authors forecast the vacant technology areas in a given technology field by analyzing patent documents and employing the proposed matrix map and KM-SVC to forecast vacant technology areas in the management of technology (MOT). Findings -The paper examines the vacant technology areas for MOT patent documents from the USA, Europe, and China by comparing these countries in terms of technology trends in MOT and identifying the vacant technology areas by country. The matrix map provides broad vacant technology areas, whereas KM-SVC provides more specific vacant technology areas. Thus, the paper identifies the vacant technology areas of a given technology field by using the results for both the matrix map and KM-SVC. Practical implications -The authors use patent documents as objective data to develop a model for vacant TF. The paper attempts to objectively forecast the vacant technology areas in a given technology field. To verify the performance of the matrix map and KM-SVC, the authors conduct an experiment using patent documents related to MOT (the given technology field in this paper). The results suggest that the proposed forecasting model can be applied to diverse technology fields, including R&D management, technology marketing, and intellectual property management. Originality/value -Most TF models are based on qualitative and subjective methods such as Delphi. That is, there are few objective models. In this regard, this paper proposes a quantitative and objective TF model that employs patent documents as objective data and a matrix map and KM-SVC as quantitative methods.

In this paper, an image clustering method that is essential for content-based image retrieval in large image databases efficiently is proposed by color, texture, and shape contents. The dominant triple HSV (Hue, Saturation, and Value), which are extracted from quantized HSV joint histogram in the image region, are used for representing color information in the image. Entropy and maximum entry from co-occurrence matrices are used for texture information and edge angle histogram is used for representing shape information. Due to its algorithmic simplicity and the several merits that facilitate the implementation of the neural network, Fuzzy ART has been exploited for image clustering. Original Fuzzy ART suffers unnecessary increase of the number of output neurons when the noise input is presented. Therefore, the improved Fuzzy ART algorithm is proposed to resolve the problem by differently updating the committed node and uncommitted node, and checking the vigilance test again. To show the validity of the proposed algorithm, experimental results on image clustering performance and comparison with original Fuzzy ART are presented in terms of recall rates.

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