Ontologies in the Product Development in Cosmetic Industry
In the beauty and cosmetics industry, there is a clear trend towards diversification of products for increasingly specific consumer groups. This requires technologies that enable precise customization to meet the needs of this growing number of target groups.
One such technology is the use of ontologies and the analysis of knowledge graphs. Ontologies structure and link terms that represent concrete things in the real world, thus enabling precise and contextual analysis. Terms are initially abstract concepts that are named by language and writing and formalized in ontologies.
Ontologies and their Application in Perfume Development
One example of the use of ontologies in product development is the analysis of the relationships between terms and properties of fragrances. This allows new formulations to be systematically developed on the basis of conceptual relationships:
Relationship analysis of fragrances:
Every fragrance has an origin, chemical properties and is assigned to certain odor types. This information is modeled in an ontology as a knowledge graph. The knowledge graph connects all fragrances of a perfume via their properties and thus forms the basis for a systematic analysis.New development through graph-based analysis:
The analysis and modification of the knowledge graph enables the development of perfumes that are not only based on quantitative formulations, but also take conceptual and sensory similarities into account. For example, an olfactory equivalent to an existing perfume can be found without focusing on the exact quantities or chemical compositions of the ingredients.
Challenges and Sources for Ontologies
A central aspect in the use of ontologies is their structure and maintenance. The quality and depth of the ontology significantly determine the analysis options and the benefits for product development.
Case study: Development of an ontology for a flavor and fragrance company
For a large Indian flavor and fragrance company, informationtagging.com developed an ontology that opens up historical data sources and makes them usable for semantic analyses.
Text mining and transformation:
Historical HTML pages with information on a variety of fragrances, flavors and recipes were analyzed using text mining. The data was then syntactically converted into XHTML and semantically transformed according to the RDFS (Resource Description Framework Schema) and OWL (Web Ontology Language) standards.Integration of semantic search mechanisms:**
The ontology was linked to a semantic search, which makes it possible to match user queries with the concepts modeled in the ontology.Future prospects:**
The project will train a language model that serves as a bridge between user queries and the semantic retrieval mechanism. In addition, web APIs will be developed to make the concepts of the ontology accessible to other applications in the company, for example for the faceted indexing of documents or to improve internal search functions.
Conclusion
Ontologies open up new possibilities in product development in the cosmetics industry for using complex data structures and developing innovative products. By combining knowledge graphs, semantic search and modern text mining, companies can optimize their development processes and create personalized products for specific target groups.