Fig. 5
From: Functional technology foresight. A novel methodology to identify emerging technologies
Examples of S-curves constructed from bibliometric data for two different technologies. Y-axis indicates the number of invention (see Fig. 1) as determined from the number of patents on the topic. The histograms span the same ten years reference period, but have been normalized for a clearer comparison. Technology a) is just entering its maturity phase at the end of the survey period, while technology b) is likely entering the decline phase (see again Fig. 1 for comparison)