You are on page 1of 6

Asia et Pacific Management Review (2006) 11(4), 239-244 Takashi Oyabu al.

/Asia Pacific Management Review (2006) 11(3), 239-244

Plant Bioelectric-Characteristics and Profitable Merchandising


Takashi Oyabua Yuki Hasegawab, Teruaki Katsubeb and Hidehito Nantoc
b a Kanazawa Seiryo University, Kanazawa, Ishikawa, 920-8620, Japan Faculty of Engineering, Saitama University, Shimo-Okubo, Saitama, 338-8570, Japan c Kanazawa Institute of Technology, Matto, Ishikawa, 924-0838, Japan Accepted in July, 2006 Available online

Abstract Plants could have various kinds of capabilities to identify some environmental factors and live in symbiosis with humans. Needless to say, we should take the advantage of these capabilities and their benefits. In this study, the capabilities were examined using the statistical analysis for bioelectrical potential and the merchandising process was also discussed. The bioelectric potential changes as the environmental factors change. The integrated values of the potential characteristic for constant periods were adopted to identify the factors. The values change largely according to watering, touching by humans and atmospheric temperature. The value becomes larger as the temperature becomes lower and the potential has the impulse responses when the plant is watered and touched. The system had a high identification rate for these factors. A new product was proposed using the capabilities of different types of interior plants, namely pothos and schefflera. A merchandising plan for the product was examined. The product has some advantages and is called pet-plant. It has a high competing ability due to its consistent development. The conditions of the pet-plant can be sent to the Internet and can also be understood far away with a cellular phone. The selling price is estimated to be $100. Keywords: Communication with plant; Cost accounting; Merchandising plan; Plant bioelectric potential; Recognition of basic human behavior

1. Introduction Plants could have a capability which can be tested various kinds of environmental factors, for example atmospheric temperature, humidity and light intensity. And plants also grow up together with humans. Humans receive various types of benefits from the plant. For example, they have a capability to remove air pollutants, moreover purify water and soil pollution, and take away our mental fatigue. Especially, plants can remove air pollutants such as formaldehyde, toluene and xylene, which are the causes of sick house syndrome (Dorgan et al., 1998; Oyabu et al., 2003). It became obvious by examining their bioelectric potential characteristics that plants could recognize some environmental factors (Hasegawa et al., 2002). Humans can expect the new application fields by deriving those capabilities, namely recognition powers for the factors. In this investigation, the commercialization using the plant recognition power was made after deriving the capabilities. The reliability for the capability was improved using a statistical analysis to the bioelectric potential. After that, the process for the commercial plant was planned. The product was named as pet plant. It became obvious that the necessity for sprinkling, touching by human and atmospheric temperature could be identified using the bioelectric potential of

the subjective plant. It was expected that the selling price of pet plant would be $100. The merchandising of the pet plant, which can identify some environmental factors, is more significant as a social contribution of an enterprise and the enterprise can also make profits. There is the merit for one company to develop and merchandize the product consistently. The business model for the sales policy was also considered. The product was composed of two modules, namely hardware and software. 2. Experiment for Pet Plant The capability of pet plant, namely the capability to identify some environmental factors, has been investigated using the bioelectric potential characteristic. Following human behaviours to plant can be thought fundamentally, namely sprinkling and touching. Bioelectric potential changes to those behaviours were examined and the characteristics were analysed statistically. The experimental system is shown in Figure1. The bioelectric potential was measured using two electrodes contacted two leaves respectively. Those two leaves joined each other. The signal was input into a mobile computer through OP-amp, a low pass filter and A-D converter. The plant pot-soil was adopted as electric ground. Following environmental factors were also examined,

Email: oyabu@seiryo-u-ac.jp

239

Takashi Oyabu et al./Asia Pacific Management Review (2006) 11(3), 239-244

Bioelectric potential (vbio)

namely temperature, humidity, illumination, atmospheric pressure and moisture grade in the pot soil. The potential was measured every 0.1 second and other signals were measured every ten minutes. The characteristics are indicated in Figure 2. In the figure, there was no person in the experimental room, namely the characteristics were examined as a control for a week. The system adopted an integrated value of bioelectric potential for one hour. The value is named as vh1, that is, vh1 is a sum of bioelectric potentials every 0.1 second. In Figure 2, the characteristics of temperature, humidity, light intensity and moisture grade are plotted by adopting the averages for one hour respectively. The bioelectric potential hardly fluctuated and it was difficult to derive the features using the potential. So, the system adopted vh1 and vm1. The vm1 means an integrated value for one minute. These values are a kind of representative value. It is thought that plant bioelectric potential is influenced gently due to environmental factors. However, the potential can respond nimbly to human behaviours, for example sprinkling, touching and entering the room. The electric potential characteristic at touching was examined. At the experiment, a subjective person touched a leaf of pet plant lightly. The characteristic is shown in Figure 3. Figure (a) indicates the direct potential and the impulse responses correspond to human touching. He touched the leaf ten times every two minutes. Figure (b) means the histogram for vs10 (integrated value for ten seconds). The average of vs10 was 5.832 and the standard deviation was 0.636. The vs10 at touching distributes at over 3 from the average. The system can understand the human touching by examining vs10. The vs10 characteristics for sprinkling and entering also had the impulse responses resembling with the touching, but the frequency components of touching differed from those of sprinkling and entering. The system can identify the touching at the rate of over 98% but the rate for the identification of sprinkling and entering was low. And the impulse response for entering took place occasionally. The characteristic depends on the plant condition and various kinds of factors. Pothos and schefflera are adopted as subjective plants. These plants are cheep and the care is easy. 3. Merchandising of Pet Plant 3.1 Design of Pet Plant The authors attempted to product the pet plant, namely merchandising of this research. Firstly, we examined the fundamental specifications concerning pet plant. The specification for the product is necessary to make the business strategy as well as the production cost and the added value of pet plant. And the functions of pet plant are also important for the production. Following two items were considered as the functions.

electrode electrode electrode electrode

Pre Amp Pre Amp

Low pass Filter Cut off frequency10Hz

A/D Converter

Plant Plant

Mobile Mobile Computer Computer

Other Sensor
Room temperature Humidity Light intensity Sound level Moisture grade

A/D Converter

Data logger

Figure1. Schematic Diagram of the Experimental System


Bioelectric potential, Light intensity (vh1, lh1)
3000 2500 2000 1500 1000 500 0 0 3000 2500 2000 1500 1000 500 0 0 24 48 72 96 120 144 168 300 400 500 24 48 72 96 120
Atomspheric Bioelectric potential Light intensity Room temperature Humidity

60 50 40 30 20 10 144 168
Moisture grade Bioelectric potential

Bioelectric potential, atmospheric (vh1, ah1)

600

Time (hour)

Figure 2. Characteristics of vh1, Temperature, Humidity, Light Intensity, Sound Level, and Moisture Grade in the Pot and Atmospheric Pressure in a Week in a Residential Space.
2. 0 1. 5 1. 0 0. 5 0. 0 -0. 5 -1. 0 -1. 5 -2. 0

(a)

0 45 38

10

15

20

Time (hour)

Frequency (%)

(b)

30 23 15 8 0 4 6 8 10

ave = 5.832 = 0.636

touching (over 3)

12

14

Bioelectric potential (vs10)

Figure 3. The Response Characteristics of vbio When the One Person Touched the Plant. (a) Means the Response Characteristics of vbio, (b) Means the Histogram of vs10.

240

Moisture grade (mh1)

Room temperature, Humidity (th1, hh1)

70

Takashi Oyabu et al./Asia Pacific Management Review (2006) 11(3), 239-244

1. User can accept the information on the maintenance and control through communications with pet plant. For this purpose, it is necessary that the system understand the plant conditions. 2. Humans are able to control pet plant enjoyably by communicating with it. We designed the functions after enough consideration. The pet plant system is indicated in Figure 4. In the system, only temperature and bioelectric sensors are adopted. Other sensors indicated in Fig.1 were not used in the product. It is a reason that temperature has an influence strongly on the bioelectric potential. The system could understand using the temperature sensor whether the potential changed due to temperature or not. Temperature is the important factor in this system. A timer is also installed in the system to understand the characteristic change with the passage of time, and the communication words given from the pet plant increase in number. It is very important to examine the kinds of words for merchandizing. The number and the variety of the words are paid attention. It is necessary to correspond to each integrated value and temperature with words by the system software. The correspondences of the values and identifications of the factors and human behaviours are as follows. vs10 and vm1 : touching, entering vm10 : keeping the room vh1 : comfortable condition, necessity of sprinkling, hot and cold, moisture grade in the soil vw1: seasonal change (vw1: integrated value for a week) The modified words are given according to the degree, for example very hot and somewhat cold. The user can enjoy the words and live with it securely. 3.2 Specification for Outside The general specification of pet plant was considered. The construction is shown in Figure 5. The bioelectrical value is analysed, and the behaviours and environmental factors are identified. The identification is output through a loudspeaker.
PetPet-plant
electrode electrode electrode electrode

(battery) PetPet-plant

Functions
Communication Air Purification Healing
Healing Communication

100V

Air purification meter Option

Figure 5.

The General Construction for Pet Plant.

The result is also sent into the Internet, namely it can be confirmed using a cellular phone. The voice is mostly effective to humans. Humans can recognize the contents anywhere in an indoor by the voice. It is effective that the cellular phone is available. The coverage of cellular phone exceeds 75% in Japan. The resident can receive the communication words by both of the speaker and the phone. E-mail is also available in this system. The user can accept the words and the plant condition via e-mail when he or she is going away. The user can feel that the plant is closer. The system will achieve higher performances and expansions by connecting to a network. Plants have an air purification capability and give a healing effect to humans (Shimbo et. al, 2004). The pet plant also has the functions and the air-pollution detector can be equipped as an option. The equipment can inform us whether the air-pollution level is the permissible range or not. It is necessary that the system utilizes and derives the various kinds of plant-benefits. By constructing the above-mentioned functions, humans can take care of the pet plant and communicate with it happily. 3.3 Communication Words Pet plant can speak words, which can be understood by humans. The number of words are important because the product value is evaluated using the number by a customer. The words are summarized in Table 1. The variables which can derive the words are also indicated in the table. The tm10 and th1 mean the average temperatures for ten minutes and an hour respectively. Table 1. The Communication Words Can Be Spoken by Pet Plant
Words Touched Have fun , play with me Its cold , its hot Thanks for the water Please watering me Im lonely It got warm or cold Variables vs10 and vm1 vm10 and tm10 vh1 and th1 vs10 and vm1 vh1 vh12 vw1

Bioelectric potential
Integrated value vm1, vm10 , vh1 , vw1 v s10

Timer

Room temperature
Average value th1, tw1 tm10

Discrimination and Output

temperature human

Figure 4. Construction of Pet Plant (hardware specification).


241

Takashi Oyabu et al./Asia Pacific Management Review (2006) 11(3), 239-244

The vocabulary will be increased by adopting other variables, for example vmo1 which means an integrated value for a month. Moreover, it is necessary to understand the variable change for the passage time and add the words. Moderate word number gives pleasantness to an occupant. 3.4 Business Model for Sales Drive Production and sales are important, so the business model must be constructed in a sales drive. The outline of the model is indicated in Figure 6. There are two components in the constitution of the pet plant, namely hardware and software parts. Various kinds of integrated values can be derived in the hardware part. The recognition results are derived in the software part. Hardware part is considered as an open source. Software part is thought as a target of business model. The trouble of hardware part does not run to software part by dividing the functions. Moreover, there is a merit to apply the hardware part to other uses by modifying the specification of the software part. Following three factors are required to get a business model patent, namely inventiveness, new conception and progressiveness. The intentions for the factors are indicated as follows, Inventiveness Communication technique with humans using plant bioelectric potential New Conception Development of the communication tool Progressiveness Expansibility by utilizing the internet and cellular phone It is thought that a business model patent can be got in the software part of the pet plant. It is considered that there is a great advantage for opening the hardware source from the viewpoint of business strategy. It is expected that the value of application increases and the sales number also increases by the strategy.
PetPet-plant
Room temperature 10minute One-way
Tw o-w ay l na Sig

3.5 Target of Customer It is very important to narrow the target customer to sale a product in the market. The obligation sale and improvement of corporate image will be planned by narrowing down the target. The single-ladies who are in twenties to low thirties, are selected as a target client. Single woman can afford to consume than single-men. The disbursement items and rates of expenditure for unaccompanied person are shown in Table 2. It is recognized that male mainly consumes in care fare and communication expense and female chiefly consumes in other items including saving. Namely, female has money enough in Japan and it is better to consider female as the marketing target. The disbursement items and the rates in groups according to the age are shown in Table 3. Females under thirty-five years old tend to disburse in the interesting items except food, clothing and shelter. Females under five years old are selected as the marketing target. It is considered they are living in affluent circumstances and can purchase a pet plant. 3.6 Concept and Goal It is necessary to construct a sales strategy for the pet plant. Profitability is changed largely according to the strategy. It is also necessary to construct a concept, which the office staff can prefer. The proposed concept on pet plant is Partner living with you and surveying you. The profitability, customer and office staff satisfactions, social contribution rise according to the concept. The image of the concept is indicated in Figure 7. Table.2 Consumptive Expense Rate (%) of a Single Person Household According to Sex.
Food Residence Heat, Light and Water supply Furniture and Domestic duties goods Clothing Medical Care fare and Communication Educational Refinement and Amusement Other expenses Male 26.6 13.9 4.4 1.7 3.2 1.7 15.7 0.2 14.8 17.8 Female 19.5 13.6 6.3 3.2 6.8 4.1 9.1 0.1 11.4 25.9

Receiving apparatus

ay o-w Tw

PDA

Table.3 Consumptive Expense Rate of a Single Person Household According to Age


Under 35 years old 24.1 17.8 3.5 1.3 6.5 1.3 17.9 0.2 14.7 12.7 35 ~ 59 years old 24.2 13.1 4.9 2.3 3.9 2.2 12.8 0.1 13.3 23.2 Over 60 years old 21.5 10.9 7.3 3.6 4.3 4.9 7.7 0.1 11.5 28.2

Bioelectric potential 0.1second Signal

Controller1

Controller2

Two-way

Controller1 Process of Sensor signal

Controller2 Distinction and output

Tw owa y

Mobile-phone

Air purification Healing effect

Communication with residence

Server

Note-PC

etc

Communication with outside

Hardware Open source

Software Business model patent

Figure 6. The Constitution of Pet Plant for Business Model


242

Food Residence Heat, Light and Water supply Furniture and Domestic duties goods Clothing Medical Care fare and communication Educational Refinement and Amusement Other expenses

Takashi Oyabu et al./Asia Pacific Management Review (2006) 11(3), 239-244

12,000 pieces / year sales


CONCEPT
Partner living with you and surveying you
11,000 12,000 pieces = 132,000,000

Cost (exclude personnel expenses)


Price Prime Cost ) 11,000 3,000 8,000 / Unit 5,500

MISSION
Contribution of Society Employee Satisfaction Customer Satisfaction

(Cost) Commission 25% Commercial 15% Stock Loss Interest 10% Upkeep

Figure 7. Concept and Missions of Pet Plant


The numerical target on pet plant was considered and it is shown in Figure 8. Annual volume of sales is set up at twelve thousands in this sales policy. The number of staff must be increased to increase the sales volume, namely payroll will be increased. The price of pet plant was evaluated at 11,000 yen (about 100$). The back ground for the price will be described in the next section. The profit, which included the excessive personnel costs, was considered. It is estimated about 2,500 yen per product. The distribution channel was also considered. The channel plays an important role in the marketing and influences the net profit strongly. Over-the-counter sale, mail selling and selling using the internet were evaluated. Over-the-counter sale is very interesting to be able to utilize a conventional marketing channel. The selling using the Internet has various good points, for example reductions of investment in the initial stage and payroll. And it can reduce the inventory because of the production after the acceptance of an order. A business enterprise can control the various kinds of risks by utilizing the over-the-counter sale and selling using the Internet as distribution channel. Stabilizing product life cycle was also considered. The cycle is not a boom type. It is a stabilizing growth type. An enterprise can gain a constant benefit from the market for a long term by the growth. However, the growth types in the market are nearly the boom type in this type of product. A version-up for the product should be always considered to maintain the stabilizing growth. New functions should be considered every version-up. The product image will be improved by the new functions and increase the amount of sales. The product will present for a long time in the market. The target volume should be maintained. The image of product life cycle is shown in Figure 9. In the figure, sales amount is set up of 12,000 per year. 3.7 Simulation for Cash Flow Statement of cash flow was considered under the condition in which the unit price of the pet plant was $100 (about 11,000 yen). The simulation results are indicated in Figure 10. However, it was premised on the following things when performing the simulation.

sales amount (10 )

Profit

50 % (Except Personnel expenses)


( 8,000 5,500 ) 12,000 pieces = 30,000,000

Operating profit (include personnel expenses) 30,000,000

Figure 8. Cost Evaluation

Market channel
1. 8

suddenly growth stable growth target line

over-the-counter sales mail-order sales internet sales

1. 2

0. 6

Version up

0. 0

year

Figure 9. Product Life Cycle


It supposed that each parameter was fixed in the sale of the pet-plant and it could sell over 1,000 pieces per month. The development cost in the early stage was computed at five million yen. Payroll was estimated at twenty million yen and the research cost was valued at one million yen every year. Maintenance cost for the appliance was capitalized yearly at 0.5 million yen from the start of marketing. The total cost for interest rate, advertising and inventory control was estimated at fifty percent of unit price. In Figure 10, the simulation results arranged to the thousand for 9,000 to 13,000 yen are shown. The unit price of 11,000 yen was evaluated. The break-even point was obtained after seventeen months in the simulation. The balance is moving into the black when the total volume of sales becomes 13,625. The unit price of over 12,000 yen is thought to be expensive for the target persons. Each parameter was fixed in this simulation. In the future, the market scale, consumers trend and purchasing power will be considered and the simulation will be carried out in detail.

243

Takashi Oyabu et al./Asia Pacific Management Review (2006) 11(3), 239-244

( million yen )
100

Investment in plant and equipment : 5 million yen


selling price @13,000 yen @12,000 yen

Cumulative Cash

50
@11,000 yen

quantity that the balance was moving into the black was evaluated at about 14,000 when the product was sold at 11,000 yen. The over-the-counter sale and selling with the Internet are effective as the market channel because the business risk can be minimized. New functions should be always taken into consideration to benefit stably. The product life cycle lengthens by improving new functions. New communication words will be derived by examining the relations between the integrated vales and environmental factors. It is necessary to utilize the various kinds of cellular phone functions and also to examine the production system.

@10,000 yen

@9,000 yen

References
Dorgan, C. B., Dorgan, C. E., Kanarek, M. S. and Willman, A. J. (1998). Health and productivity benefits of improved indoor air quality. ASHRAE Transaction: Research, 658-666. Oyabu, T., Sawada, A., Onodera, T., Takenaka, K., Wolverton, B. (2003). Characteristics of potted plants for removing offensive odors. Sensors and Actuators, B89, 131-136. Hasegawa, Y., Uchida, H., Asada, S., Katsube, T., Oyabu, T. (2002). Investigation of air pollution purification ability of plants by a bioelectrical potential analysis, The Society of Plant Engineers Japan, 14(2), 96-100. Shimbo, T., Oyabu, T., Jin, Z., Hirobayashi, S. Takenaka, K. (2004). Statistical Analysis of Plant Bioelectric Potential Aiming at Communication, 33rd International Conference on Computers & Industrial Engineering, F3.5P-CIE597 (Mar. 25-27, Jeju, Korea).

-50 0 10 20 30 40 50 60

month

Figure 10. Simulation Result for Cash Flow. 4. Conclusions


In this study, the product development and analysis of management plan of pet plant were carried out. The communication technique of plant and human was built up by analysing the integrated bioelectric potential using a statistical method. Especially, touching as a human behaviour, fluctuation of atmospheric temperature and need of water could be identified using the integrated values. The communications with plant can please humans. The pet plant can have various types of functions by connecting a cellular phone. The break-even point was also estimated. The

244

You might also like