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Innovation is the practical implementation of ideas that result in the introduction of new goods or services or the improvement in them (Schumpter, 1983). Innovation is closely related to invention as innovation is more on involving the practical implementation of a new or improved invention to make a meaningful impact in a market or society (Schumpter, 1939). On the other hand, innovative design is a process of identifying, pinpointing, and understanding the needs of the user or audience (Shaulis, 2021). Previously, Dixon (1966) defined innovative design as any design that is: new or different, or elegant or uses new ideas, or is an improvement over its peers. Once the market need has been identified, a solution can then be designed. In our proposed innovative design method, we introduced and investigated a method that is able to be applied in designing an intergrated system that could be a valuable solution to the society. This method starts with directly observe activities of things and real people in real trouble in the real field. Then, we think about the value of "I wish there were such things as…", visualize the story, draw a clear sketch to accomplish the story concretely. Next, we solidify the functions and specifications while investigating needs and competition. Then, we create a prototype that able to show and test your ideas, demonstrate to the people who need it, let them experience it, and gain feedback. Lastly, we evaluate the value of product design and development and plan methods for implementing it as an organization, and plan ways to improve and expand globally. All of the steps in this method are important for innovative design, however, in this research this time we focused on co-designing value, big idea, and considering as integrated steps for identifying latent needs of the consumers. It is because identifying needs is an important part in the product development process. Latent needs are those that many consumers recognize as important in a final product but unable to articulate in advance (Ulrich, 2015). The latent needs addressed in this study was focusing on identifying consumer requirements in product development in the innovative design method. The challenge in identifying latent needs is finding the method to elicit from consumers the needs which are not addressed by any inventors yet in the present market but would delight the consumers if delivered tomorrow. The purpose of this study is to propose and verify the method in the elicitation of latent needs from consumer needs by introducing a working prototype to the consumers, interviewing, and analyzing responses from the consumers. This research was conducted during the year the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. As the pandemic spread, most countries were forced to go into lockdown or declare an emergency state. The school was closed and business organizations needed to switch to working from home to prevent the spread. The parents were unable to work from home efficiently as they were worried their children will involve in dangerous incidents if the children were left by themselves. Based on this situation, this study was conducted in finding the latent needs of the parents, childcare workers, and children in order to assist them in going through their problems during this COVID-19 pandemic. The working prototype was used as material to prepare presentation slides for the consumers' interviews. The first presentation slides were focused on the background problems and ideas for the solutions while the second presentation slides provided consumers with a prototype and story of the product that was believed would be one of the solutions to the problems. Interviews were conducted after both slide presentations. Consumers' responses were obtained and interpreted into consumers' needs in terms of product functions. In the first study, consumers' interpreted needs from Problem-based interviews and Prototype and Story-based interviews were compared. Based on the results, latent needs interpreted from interviewees' responses and the categories of the needs obtained from the Prototype-based interviews are more than from the Problem-based interview. The latent needs that we were able to obtain from this research were for example, “The device is able to detect small changes in a child while watching he/she sleeping” which could lead into the prevention of unwanted incident such as sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). This supports our assumption that showing working prototype-based materials with story descriptions can be effective in uncovering potential latent needs. In the second study, it is assumed that experience, empathy, and knowledge of working prototype is essential elements in product development, therefore, new additional guidelines which are “to write a statement with empathy”, “to write a statement as a designer”, and “to write a statement as someone with experience” were proposed during consumers' needs interpretation to see whether these new guidelines will influence the process of identifying latent needs of consumers. From the result, it is concluded that the number of interpreted needs increased when we applied the new proposed guideline. Although the number is small, the needs might not be interpreted if the new guidelines were not considered. We were also able to obtain a few important latent needs when we applied these new guidelines. A latent need collected from applying the guideline "to write a statement as someone with experience" is “The device is not for teaching love and humanity but for monitoring by watching facial expression, posture, and vital signals such as temperature and heart rate”. We could conclude that including these guidelines upon interpreting raw data from the consumers’ interviews might lead into discovering important and critical latent needs of the consumers. In the third study, a quantitative evaluation method for identifying latent needs was introduced. The consumers' interpreted needs were rated according to a basis of rating from the three perspectives of importance, latent-ness, and technological feasibility. The Degree of Latent Needs (DLN) was calculated by multiplying these three metrics. Based on the result for the average and variance of DLN mean value for each evaluator which is sufficiently small, it indicates that the basis of rating for three metrics of the DLN is effective. The results also indicate that the 20 highest DLN points of the interpreted needs contain attractive features in terms of design. However, we had gotten some pushback on the average of each interpreted need and its variance which indicates opposing opinions among evaluators. As it is possible that attractive needs are hidden and may lead to the discovery of latent needs through individual pinpoint interviews, the interviews with the minority evaluators were conducted. The interview results indicate that the latent needs with low DLN rates but valuable might be able to be discovered by conducting follow-up interviews such as “The device is able to recognize items (food or not) that a child wants to put in the mouth”. From the results in all three studies, we could conclude that a number of important latent needs are able to be elicited from consumers’ needs by applying the proposed method. In our fourth study, a decision-making method based on the patent analysis between the conceptual design stage and the prototyping stage in the innovative design method was introduced. Conducting a patent strategy was assumed to support how to select the right concept precisely. In this study, by conducting a patent search in this stage by the designer who understood best the product functions and working principles, a supporting method was introduced to assist the designer in their decision-making process. Based on the result, the method was able to observe whether there are dominating companies or not for our concept design. If there is a dominating company, the possibility of not being able to produce our concept becomes bigger. This method may be applied as an indicator to support decisionmaking in the concept design stage in the innovative design method, whether to proceed with the concept design or not and to reduce the possibility of product failure in the future. From the results of all the studies, we could conclude that these above methods may be applied as assistive tools to support designers’ understanding of consumers’ requirements and selecting the right concept design.

Sleep is an essential physiological process for the human body. People spend about one-third of their lives sleeping. Both sleep duration and sleep quality are important to human health. Sleep quality describes how restful and restorative the sleep process is. Over 80 sleep disorders are known to affect sleep quality. Among them, sleep-related breathing disorder (SRBD) is the second factor. Sleep-related breathing disorders are sleep disorders in which breathing abnormalities occur during sleep. Abnormal snoring and respiratory arrest or abnormally low breathing during sleep reduce oxygen levels in the blood, increasing the risk of depression, cardiovascular disease, stroke and even death. Therefore, monitoring and analysis of respiration during sleep is gaining increasing importance in healthcare. Polysomnography (PSG) is considered the gold standard for diagnosing sleep disorders, but PSG is usually performed in an unfamiliar sleep laboratory under the supervision of a medical technician and is often worn with many sensors that interfere with sleep. It is often the case. This research group is developing a breathing sound measurement system that constantly monitors the quality of sleep in general home environment. This system can easily measure breath sounds during sleep all night with high accuracy without disturbing sleep. The purpose of this research is to develop a technique to classify patterns of breathing sounds and to analyze the quality of breathing in order to more accurately analyze the state of sleep from breath sound information. There are various patterns of sleep breath sounds, such as normal breath sounds and snoring, and abnormal breath sounds and snoring. To develop a method to classify these patterns, to develop an algorithm to calculate ventilation from breath sounds, to estimate the sleep apnea index (AHI), and to assess the quality of breathing during sleep. try. Specifically, the temporal feature waveform (TCW) is calculated after partly removing the noise of the breathing sounds of sleep with a band-pass filter. Based on the time feature waveform, a respiratory signal effective for analysis is extracted from low-level signals and phase-divided into a respiratory phase and an apnea or low signal. Mel-frequency cepstrum coefficients (MFCC) are then obtained for the respiratory phases, and an agglomerative hierarchical clustering (AHC) algorithm is applied to distinguish between normal/abnormal breathing, normal/abnormal snoring, and normal/abnormal breathing. , tossing and turning, etc., which are less relevant to breathing. The categorized breathing patterns are analyzed every 30 seconds and the relative tidal volume of the breath is calculated. In addition to verifying the effectiveness and accuracy of the technology and analysis method proposed in this study, a method of estimating the apnea syndrome index (AHI) and converting the ventilation volume into high, medium, and low levels, We propose a method to evaluate the quality of breathing in a patient and verify its effectiveness. This paper consists of six chapters, including an introduction and conclusion. Chapter 1 introduces the background and overview of this research. Chapter 2 describes a signal-processing technique for analyzing breath sounds during sleep and a method for classifying breathing patterns. Breathing sound data during sleep often includes disturbed breathing due to bruxism or body movement, ambient environmental noise, etc. In this chapter, the Time Characteristic Waveform (TCW) and the Characteristic Moment Waveform (CMW) are calculated for respiratory sound signals that have undergone preprocessing, such as filtering noise to preprocess the respiratory sounds, and the segmentation of inspiration and expiration is performed. The Mel-Frequency Cepstrum Coefficients (MFCC) are obtained for each respiratory cycle and applied as a feature vector to the Agglomerative Hierarchical Clustering (AHC) algorithm. This method is used to classify ordinary respiratory signals (normal and abnormal breathing, normal and abnormal snoring) from signals less relevant to respiration, such as tossing and turning and environmental noise. In Chapter 3, using the technology described in Chapter 2, breathing sound data during sleep are classified into apnea, hypopnea, normal breathing, abnormal breathing, normal snoring, and abnormal breathing for each 30-second frame. In addition, we describe a method for classifying events such as no snoring and rolling over and determining the respiratory state. In Chapter 4, we propose a method for estimating the apnea-hypopnea Apnea-Hypopnea Index (AHI) for classified abnormal breath sounds and low-level breath sound signals, compare it with the diagnostic results of PSG, and examine its validity. And verify usefulness. Chapter 5 describes a method for estimating ventilation volume from breath sounds. Because normal breath sounds are correlated with ventilation, this study used a quantitative approach to calculate normal breathing and normal snoring and a qualitative method to calculate apnea/hypopnea and abnormal breath sounds. We will propose and compare it with the diagnosis result of PSG and verify its validity. In Chapter 6, as an application development, an example of applying the breathing sound classification method proposed in this study to heart sound analysis is presented. Finally, we will explain the construction of a data collection distribution system for sharing auscultation data collected at different facilities and hospitals using blockchain technology. Chapter 7 presents the conclusions and prospects of this study.

Nutrient pollution is one of our most pervasive, expensive, and challenging environmental problems, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Phosphorus is one of the nutrients that are essential for the growth of living organisms. However, excessive amounts of nutrients released into the environment by human activities can harm ecosystems and impact human health. In surface waters, phosphorus can contribute to an overgrowth of algae called algal "blooms" that can sicken or kill wildlife and endanger aquatic habitats. Algal blooms consume dissolved oxygen in the water, leaving little or no oxygen for fish and other aquatic organisms. Algal blooms can harm aquatic plants by blocking the sunlight they need to grow. Some algae produce toxins and encourage the growth of bacteria that can make people sick who are swimming or drinking water or eating contaminated fish or shellfish. Phosphorus is often a major limiting nutrient freshwater system. Consequently, many of the wastewater treatment plant discharged into freshwater systems such as lakes, ponds, and rivers have phosphorus discharge limits. In an attempt to prevent harmful environmental effects of excess phosphorus, several techniques have been designed to remove phosphorus from wastewater. These techniques range from adsorption and precipitation to enhanced biological phosphorus removal and constructed wetlands. Biological phosphorus removal (BPR) was first used at a few water resource recovery facilities in the late 1960s. A common element in EBPR implementation is the presence of an anaerobic tank (no nitrate and oxygen) before the aeration tank. In the next aerobic phase, these bacteria can accumulate large amounts of polyphosphate in their cells and phosphorus removal is said to be increased. The group of microorganisms that are largely responsible for P removal are known as the phosphorus accumulating organisms (PAOs). One of the options to remove phosphorus is to utilize bacteria from nature, besides being easy to obtain and inexpensive. The application of bacteria from sediment and seawater was able to reduce phosphorus in wastewater. In this study, for screening salt-tolerant phosphorus accumulating organisms (PAOs) and investigating the P release and uptake of the organisms in saline wastewater. The samples used were sediment and seawater from Yamaguchi Bay, Yamaguchi, Japan. Sediment and seawater added 150 mL of artificial saline wastewater with media (anaerobic media). The samples were then cultured and given feed media every three hours day at 25 °C and shaken at 140 rpm. The hydraulic retention time of the cultivation was 16 h and 8 h under anaerobic and aerobic conditions, respectively. 10 sponges made of polyurethane with dimensions of 2 cm were put in Erlenmeyer flasks and was used as a bio-carrier surface for microorganisms to adhere to. Water was passed over the sponge surface to acclimatize the microorganisms growing outside the sponge as well as within its pores, ensuring sufficient growth surface. The cultivation duration was 112 days. Batch experiments were conducted over 98 days in solutions with a salinity of 3.5% and P concentrations of 1, 5, 10, and 20 mg-P/L. The P-uptake ability of microorganisms increased by increasing P concentration from 1 to 20 mg-P/L. A high P removal percentage with an average of 85% was obtained at 10 mg-P/L after day 56. The uptake and release of P were observed in saline wastewater, signifying that salt-tolerant PAOs could grow in the saline solution. Bacterial screening by isolation and sequence analysis using 16S rRNA demonstrated that two cultivated strains, TR1 and MA3, had high similarity with Bacillus sp. and Thioclava sp. EIOx9, respectively. The colony morphology analysis showed that the colonies of TR1 were rod-shaped, milky-colored, round, shiny-viscous, smooth with a defined margin, while colonies of MA3 were cream-colored with smooth surfaces and raised aspect. The TR1 was gram-stain-positive with approximately 6-10 μm long and 1.2 μm wide cells, and MA3 was gram-stain-negative with about 0.9 μm long and 0.5 μm wide cells. The results demonstrated the involvement of Bacillus sp., and Thioclava sp. in the release and uptake of P, owing to their ability to grow in saline wastewater. Furthermore, Bacillus sp. (TR1) and Thioclava sp. (MA3) were assessed for their abiotic adaptability and phosphorus removal efficiency in saline wastewater. The effects of abiotic factors such as carbon source, pH, temperature, and salinity on bacterial growth were examined through a series of batch experiments. Both bacteria used carbon sources such as glucose, sucrose, and CH3COONa for their growth. The pH study indicated that Bacillus sp. (TR1) preferred the pH range of 6 8 and Thioclava sp. (MA3) preferred the pH range of 6-9. Bacillus sp. favorably multiplied in the temperature range of 25- 40 °C, while 25 35 °C was preferred by Thioclava sp. Salinity range of 0% 10% was favorable for TR1, with optimum growth observed at 3.5% 5%, and Thioclava sp. (MA3) preferred the salinity range of 1% 10% with optimal growth at 4%, but was absent in non-saline water. Bacillus sp. and bacterial combination (TR1 and MA3) showed similar values for phosphorus removal efficiency (100%) at 1.0 mg-P/L total P compared to Thioclava sp. (38.2%). The initial phosphorus concentration of 2.5 mg-P / L showed a slightly higher 72.35% P removal efficiency compared to the individual strains. However, phosphorus removal did not increase, but showed a downward trend with increasing at initial phosphorus. The combination possibly built a synergistic activity between the individual strains to remove phosphorus. The results demonstrated that when used individually, Bacillus sp. showed a reasonably high phosphorus removal ability than Thioclava sp., and exhibited good synergy when used in combination to remove phosphorus from saline wastewater.