1. Mikko Nykänen Major: Telecommunications Management Minor: Communications Network Technology Direction of Studies: Product Development and User Interfaces mikko.j.nykanen@hut.fi Master’s Thesis Presentation at TKK Communications Laboratory on 6th June 2006

2. Product Concept and Business Venture Ideation: Plant Terrarium The target: Successful business plan for the Venture Cup business plan contest to show a way of commercializing current achievements in the research of PLC and/or LEDs (Power Line Communications and/or Light Emitting diodes) through a new business venture Product concept: The product and related acceptability and productability issues Business venture: A start-up business with a high growth potential through innovative product, service, business model, production process or a new market Ideation: Idea generation, cultivation, evaluation and selection

3. Ideation Related Techniques Idea Generation: The first phase of ideation where the freedom of creativity is at its highest. Techniques: Mind Mapping, Fish Bones and Six Thinking Hats Idea Cultivation: Refines the valuable ideas from those created.Technique: Synethics method Idea Evaluation: Analyzes the factors for and against developing each product concept to a business venture. Technique: Force Field Analysis Idea Selection: Gives the best concept for further development. Techniques: Decission Three or a method tailored to the project requirements

4. Commercialization Process New business formation requires: A high quality business idea, management team and capital Commercial potential of a business idea requires: Defined customer, product and earning logic with enough market potential Organization management: Partitioning people into activity groups, each with a specific sub-task, and providing coordination within and between the groups so as to achieve the whole task Financial Planning: Keeping cash above zero, eventually making satisfactory profit, satisfying critical stakeholders and increasing company resources and value so that lasting longevity is secured and expectations of returns are met Intellectual property: For protecting the investment or can be used as a merchandise

5. Promising Research Results to be Commercialized Power Line Communications (PLC): The technology to enable the transmission of data over a power line that carries and supplies electric power. Widely used X-10 offers 0,05 kbps, new PLC modems even 200 Mbps in standardized products or 0,1 – 30 kpbs inexpensively on a single chipset Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs): There are bright LEDs on the PAR (PAR) frequencies the plants require for photosynthesis, phototropy, photomorphosis and photolysis LEDs and Plants: Ability of radiation to create photosynthetic activity is measured as PPF photosyntetic photon flux.

6. Ideation Idea Generation was performed to find an applicable target group, to define a few key applications with keywords LED, PLC, Services (adjustable color, savability, monitoring), Users (home, work, interior design), Place of usage (indoors, outdoors, vechile) Idea Cultivation resulted to fourteen converged proposals achieved in four different ways: Completely new ideas from this ideation such as Talk Chat for Seniors, (preliminary) candidates from earlier product development course such as Stage Lighting and cultivated coursework candidates such as Mini Greenhouse and PLC Lite interior lighting system Idea Evaluation resulted to the four concepts on the left Idea Selection resulted to the Mini Greenhouse Selection Points Mini Gr.Talk ChatPLC LiteStage Eq. Total18613615874 + defficiencies of existing, clearly novel and innovative - risks in implementation, far from network technology + user advantages - lot of work needed to beat existing systems VC: Too much coding + PLC adds value - close existing systems VC: There already is patent for likewise solution + combined data and control -lot of work needed to beat existing systems, scales of markets

7. Plant Terrarium Implementation Plan Innovation studies, market researches, & competition evaluation showed the plant terrarium market position on the left The Planned Business venture needed experience from interior and furniture design and I hired Niko Venäläinen from UIAH (TaiK) to my Venture Cup team in addition to my initial team partner Inga Mathiesen-Buinevits from TKK. Product specifications gave the need for cooling instead of initial thought for warming Prototype building is ongoing at UIAH and it is going to be tested with our pilot customer from the Finnish Orchid Union Commercialization: My company focus is in R&D and Marketing and I outsource production distribution and services.

8. Venture Cup Strong correlation between success in the Venture Cup and in the real life later The first round strengths: trendy ready made future product which is lacking from the market, analogy to aquarium hobby and development areas sales distribution and marketing The second round business plan was among the ten awarded and got a special prize of arts and design The third round business plan was one of the ten candidates for top awards and got an award of the best business plan in the fields of media arts and culture. My team was also awarded with office premises in Arabus business incubation center for half a year

9. Future Options Technological options: When the smart home concept proceeds the plant terrarium can be included there with PLC technology LEDs enable nonconventional positioning of lighting and thus enable energy saving Ultra sound moisturizers, peltier cooling, automatic watering series Commercialization options: Cooperation with laboratories and existing companies in the related fields through combined research and marketing efforts Basic and advanced modules to the product Orchid Hobbyists and/or Interior designers as customers preferably internationally Cabin Hole Surface Door Cooling Element Cooling Plate Lighting Element Fan Automatic Watering

10. Conclusions The objective of the study has been achieved. The study has shown potential commercialization options for the new research results in LED and PLC technology The Venture Cup jury evaluated the plant terrarium business idea and design ideology innovative and creative, showing the capability of the innovation tools I presented here, and also my capability to utilize them