The product was invented in Japan, The need for the technological breakthrough was the major fires which followed from serious earthquake in Japan mostly due to short circuits or gas leaks.
Conventional fire fighting methods failed to prevent significant loss of life and property.
The key solution was to develop an extinguisher which would works on its own and could put out small fires quickly and easily before they expanded into an unstoppable fire storm.
This was a sort of first aid product in Fire & Safety Industry which could activate itself and would not require human intervention in the case of any fire unlike conventional extinguishers.