Automated Product Design Generation via Image Feature Analysis

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing product design creation is hindered by limitations in designer knowledge, time, and resources, making it challenging to create designs that attract customer attention, especially when competing with established products.

Innovation Solution

A product design generation assistance device that acquires existing product images, identifies features of new product designs that differ significantly from existing products, and outputs design information to aid in creating attention-grabbing new product designs.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Ease of manufacture

If manual design creation is used by designers, then design creativity and expertise can be applied, but the process is limited by designer knowledge, work man-hours, and time, making it difficult to create attention-grabbing designs

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvedesign creation efficiencyVSAvoiddesign output quantity

Core Design Contradiction:

Ease of manufactureVSProductivity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent replaces the manual mechanical design process with an automated image processing system. The system uses computer algorithms to analyze product images, extract design features, and generate new design candidates, substituting human manual work with automated computational processes. This resolves the contradiction by enabling rapid design generation without being limited by designer availability or manual processing speed.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #28Mechanics substitution (Replace mechanical system)

Solution Approach 2:

The system creates multiple design candidates by copying and transforming existing product design features. It extracts key design elements from existing products and generates variations through systematic modification, allowing rapid proliferation of design options without requiring proportional increases in designer time or resources.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #26Copying

2Reliability

If multiple design candidates are created manually to find attention-grabbing designs, then design quality can be improved, but the time and resources required increase significantly

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvedesign effectivenessVSAvoiddesign development time

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs preliminary automated analysis of existing product designs and pre-generates multiple design candidates before human review. By preparing numerous design options in advance through automated processing, the system reduces the time designers need to spend on initial concept generation while maintaining a wide range of quality options for selection.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The system generates an excessive number of design candidates automatically, far more than a human designer could create manually in the same time period. This over-generation of options ensures that the most effective designs are available for selection without requiring proportional time investment, as the automated system can rapidly produce and filter numerous variants.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #16Partial or excessive action

3Adaptability or versatility

If designers focus on creating unique designs that differ from existing products, then customer attention can be attracted, but the complexity of analyzing and identifying distinctive features increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvedesign differentiationVSAvoidanalysis system complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The system segments the complex task of design differentiation into manageable components: extracting specific design features from images, comparing individual features against existing products, and systematically identifying which features provide differentiation. This segmentation reduces the apparent complexity by breaking down the analysis into discrete, automated steps that can be processed independently.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The system changes the parameters of design analysis by using automated image processing metrics and feature extraction algorithms. Instead of relying on subjective human assessment of design uniqueness, the system objectively measures and compares design parameters such as shape, color, and structural features, making the complexity of differentiation analysis manageable through standardized parameter evaluation.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #35Parameter changes

Data Source

PatentUS20250086354A1Product design generation assistance device, product design generation assistance method, and recording medium having product design generation assistance program stored thereon

Publication Date: 2025.03.13 NEC CORP

AI summary

A product design generation assistance device is provided with: an acquisition unit which acquires an existing product image representing the design of an existing product; an identification unit which, on the basis of the existing product image, identifies a feature of a new product design that satisfies a condition regarding differences from the design of the existing product; and an output unit which outputs design information about the new product design on the basis of the feature regarding the new product design. Thus the product design generation assistance device assists in generating a product design that is relatively eye-catching as compared to the existing product.