Abstract We introduce a new, bespoke data structure to analyze and visualize the evolution of a technology. The technology under analysis is defined by a set of patents corresponding to a technical field, owned by a company or invented by a team of research. Our data structure, the Dynamic Technology Footprint –DTFootprint–, facilitates the analysis and visualization of trends and dynamics of a given technology, and therefore the evolution of a technical field, a company, or a team of people. A graphical tool based on our data structure is defined, it is named Technology Spectrogram –TechSpectrogram–, because it is inspired by the acoustic frequency spectrograms: as the acoustic frequency spectrograms visualize the dynamics of an acoustic wave showing the evolution of its frequency components our tool shows the dynamics of a technology showing the evolution of its technological components, which are represented by the whole set of IPC-codes. Our graphical tool, the TechSpectrogram is shown for some study cases, and its application to the history of technology and technology management are disclosed.

中文翻译：

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基于专利信息研究技术演化的新型数据结构和可视化工具：DTFootprint 和 TechSpectrogram

摘要 我们引入了一种新的、定制的数据结构来分析和可视化技术的演变。分析中的技术由一组与技术领域相对应的专利定义，由公司拥有或由研究团队发明。我们的数据结构，动态技术足迹 – DTFootprint – 有助于分析和可视化给定技术的趋势和动态，从而促进技术领域、公司或团队的发展。定义了一个基于我们数据结构的图形工具，它被命名为 Technology Spectrogram——TechSpectrogram——，因为它的灵感来自于声频谱图：由于声频谱图将声波的动态可视化，显示了其频率分量的演变，我们的工具显示了一项技术的动态，显示了其技术组件的演变，这些技术组件由整套 IPC 代码表示。我们的图形工具 TechSpectrogram 显示了一些研究案例，并公开了它在技术和技术管理历史中的应用。