In spite of the rapid increase of computer use in our everyday life, not much effort is undertaken to take measures to prevent Musculoskeletal Disorders(MSDs). In this paper, we suggest a movable armrest which would lower the exposure to the MSDs, especially on the vicinity of arm. The aim of this study is to determine whether there are differences in wrist angle variations, forearm muscular loads, comfort and normal performance between the invented movable armrest and a conventional armrest when using a computer mouse. Eight experienced VDU workers performed a standardized simple task set which consists of 15 detailed tasks with each armrest. The wrist angle variations in the right arm were registered by electrogoniometer and the muscle activities in the shoulder, deltoid and two extensors in the forearm were also registered by electromyograph. The subjects rated perceived comfort while performing the tasks with each armrest. Working with the invented armrest, compared to general, gave significantly decreased wrist angle variations at most of the detailed tasks of both biaxial movements. Moreover, as the distance of targets increased, the difference of muscle activities in two different situations trend to be increasing. At the same time, in work with invented armrest, the subjects rated more comfort and they showed decreased normal performances in 8 detailed tasks which were mainly caused by macro moving time.

The muscular-skeletal disorders(MSDs) that have become a major issue recently in Korean industrial safety area are mainly caused by manual material handling task. The objective of this study is to provide scientific data for the establishment of work safety standard for Korean workers through the experiments of lifting task under various conditions, in order to prevent the muscular-skeletal disorders in the industrial work site. Eight male college students were recruited as participants. Three different lifting frequencies(1, 3, 5 lifts/min) and three twisting angles(including the sagittal plane and two asymmetric angles; i.e., 0°, 45°, 90°) for symmetric and asymmetric tasks, respectively, with three lifting range from floor to knuckle height, knuckle to shoulder, floor to shoulder height for one hour's work shift using free style lifting technique were studied. The maximum acceptable weight of load(MAWL) was determined under the different task conditions, and the oxygen consumption, heart rate, and RPE were measured or recorded while subjects were lifting their MAWLs. The results showed that: (1) The MAWLs were significantly decreased as the task frequency and task angle increased.; (2) The heart rate, oxygen consumption, RPE significantly increased with an increase in lifting frequency although maximum acceptable weight of lift decreased.; (3) The highest heart rate and oxygen consumption was recorded at the lifting range of floor to shoulder, followed by floor to knuckle and knuckle to shoulder.; (4) The RPE value showed that subjects perceived more exertion at the high frequency rate of lifting task and lifting range of floor to shoulder height. (5) The modeling for MAWL using isometric strength, task angle and lifting frequency were developed. It is expected that use of the results provided in this study may prove helpful in reducing MMH hazards, especially from lifting tasks for Korean, and can be used as a basis for pre-employment screening.

Window buttons located on a task bar provide information about windows that have been open as well as active. When the number of buttons on the task bar increases, the button size gets smaller and as a result, it is more difficult to identify. This study proposes new alternatives of presenting window buttons to search for a target button efficiently. An experiment was conducted to evaluate the usability of the new. Factors manipulated in the experiment include 'button arrangement methods' and 'order of buttons'. The 'button arrangement methods' factor is composed of three levels, 'one line', 'changeable line', and 'grouping buttons'. The 'order of buttons' factor is composed of three levels, 'fixed order', 'click-right', and 'order control by user'. The results showed that the main effects were significant in search time. In subjective satisfaction, the interaction effect was also significant. The results could be applied to the design of small screens such as PDA or cellular phones.

It is important to analyze the characteristics of normal gait in clinical and biomechanical aspects. Although gait characteristics can be varied by anthropometric, racial and cultural factors, normal gait studies have been performed mostly for Western people. The present study conducted a gait analysis for Korean young adults and compared the gait characteristics with those of Western people for the establishment of Korean normal gait data. A total of thirty-two adults in twenties(20 males and 12 females) were participated in the gait experiment and their spatio-temporal and kinematic/kinetic gait characteristics were analyzed. The comparison of the gait characteristics between Korean and Western people, revealed that the stride length and walking speed of Korean were significantly smaller than those of Western people by 0.1~0.3m and 0.15~0.40m/s respectively. And the knee abduction moment of Korean was larger than that of Western people, while the other moments(such as hip flexion/extension moments, abduction/adduction moments, and knee flexion/extension moments) were smaller than those of Western people. The ranges of joint angles between the gait studies were largely different with each other, but most of motion patterns and excursions were similar.

The purpose of this study was to investigate applicability of NIOSH lifting equation(NLE) to analysis of workload for patient transferring. In principle, the NLE is not applied to analyzing workload of patient transferring, because 1) the task is generally performed by two or more persons; 2) unlike ordinary objects, human body of patients is basically unstable load with their location of the center of mass significantly varying during lifting activity; and 3) the task is done in a restricted work space. This study was conducted through comparison of NIOSH lifting indexes(LIs) and L5/S1 compressive forces by 3DSSPP for patient transferring tasks performed by 2~6 persons. The results showed that LIs are linearly correlated with L5/S1 compressive forces with correlation coefficient of 0.92, which resulted in a significant simple linear regression equation for LIs and L5/S1 compressive forces. Consequently, it was concluded that the NLE is applicable to transferring patient only with slight modification. Based on the results, instead of 1.0 originally used by NIOSH, the LI of 1.5 was proposed as a gauge to estimate whether or not the task needs corrective action to reduce risk for developing lifting-related low back pain.

In assessing risks related to working posture, pictures of postures are taken from various directions, which can be a source of observation error. Joint postures of the neck, lower back, knee, shoulder, and elbow were taken from 7 different viewing angles and 19 observers estimated joint angles by observing the pictures in 2-dimensional display. The joint angles were also measured using an optoelectronic motion measurement system. The estimation error increased as the viewing angle varies from the right side of the human body, but the patterns differ according to which joint angles were being observed. Guidelines to increase the validity of observation of joint angles were presented based on the results. In general, it is recommended to maintain the viewing angle within 20 degrees from the right side of the human body, while different ranges of viewing angle are recommended for each joint angle.

This paper presents an experimental study of the factors modulating the urgency perception of voice alarm generated by concatenative synthesizers. Four experiments were conducted using psycho-physical approach in which 105 participants made magnitude estimation for urgency perception of various voice alarm stimuli. Experiment 1 identified 6 acoustic and non-acoustic factors modulating the perceived urgency of synthesized voice alarm. Experiment 2, 3 and 4 quantified the relations between the objective changes in each of the quantifiable parameters and the subjective changes in urgency perception. This research has implications for the design and implementation of synthesized voice alarm systems where urgency mapping is required.

The goal of this research is to analyze the Korean anthropometric data collected through Project "Size Korea" by ATS from 2003 to 2004, to extract the characteristics for each age and sex group, and to establish an extensive reference for designers of related products. The result shows that the characteristics of Korean anthropometric data have the different ratio and distribution among mutually related factors for different age and sex. Especially, the difference between two groups, those in their twenties and those in their fifties and above, are huge, indicating that there are drastic changes in the data for recent decades. The result of this research can be used for the design of furniture, clothes and workplace, where there are different target ranges for specific age and sex.

The objective of this study was to investigate the validity of a self-administered checklist for office ergonomics. Total 71 office workers were asked to fill up the checklist, while 3 trained ergonomists assessed the work posture of the workers. It was shown that out of 10 checklist items, there were significant differences for 8 posture-related items between the worker group and the professional group. Therefore, when a checklist is applied to office environment, the posture-related aspect should be evaluated by ergonomic professionals.

The purpose of this study is to extract typical body shapes of Korean adults based on the three-dimensional Korean anthropometric data measured through 5th national anthropometric survey and to examine the suitability of the 3-D human shape data for the interior packaging. 36 three-dimensional anthropometric variables related to the design of vehicle interior were considered for the appraisal of typical body shapes. Four major factors were extracted by the factor analysis and factor scores were calculated for all subjects. Typical or standard drivers of Korean adults were selected by the minimum deviation criteria for the four factor scores with respect to 5th, 50th, and 95th percentiles, respectively. Typical drivers of Korean adults were visualized by the CATIA-HUMAN program due to the absence of proper application software for three-dimensionally scanned human body data. There are considerable differences between the anthropometric data of Korean adults and those provided by CATIA-HUMAN program, which shows that the modeling data provided by CATIA-HUMAN should not be directly applied to the ergonomic evaluation for the vehicle design. This suggests the necessity for the development of suitable software for scanned human shape data. It is also expected that the anthropometric data of typical drivers extracted from this study help design package layouts and improve the suitability of ergonomic evaluation for Korean customers.

Recently, Korean's 3-D foot data have been extensively collected through 5th national anthropometric survey known as 'Size Korea'. In this study, Korean foot shape was investigated and subsequently classified, based on the existing standard for foot shaping. This study analyzed and categorized Korean foot shapes through the following methods. Although the data used in this study were limited to those of Korean adults, major factors affecting the foot shape were deduced and then categorically grouped by the multivariate statistical analysis. For those whose age ranged from 14 to 70, major factors affecting the foot shape for the male were related to foot breadth, ankle thickness, 1st toe shape, malleolus height, heel to top of the foot length, the ratio between toe-side and heel-side and 5th toe shape. For the female, the ball of foot height was added to the above factors. From the factors extracted, the Korean foot shape was categorized into three groups for the male and four groups for the female. They were the ladder type, the inverted triangle type and the square type. For the female, the triangular type was added to the three types. These findings will serve as useful information for the footwear production industry in Korea.

The present study evaluated the accuracy of MSD-related work criterion of Korea Ministry of Labor by using ergonomic workload evaluation methods. 1,948 manufacturing works in automobile industry were divided into 1,286 MSD-related risky works and 662 risk-free ones by using RULA, ANSI Z-365 and perceived discomfort evaluation. Then, the two types of works were evaluated by Labor Ministry work criterion to analyze the classification accuracy of the work criterion. The work criterion of Korea Labor Ministry had low hit and false alarm ratio(20 and 11%) and high miss and correct rejection ratio(80 and 89%), and the odd ratios of hit and correct rejection were 0.2 and 8.3, respectively. It can be concluded that the work criterion of Korea Labor Ministry is a conservative evaluation method which tends to evaluate a target work as risk-free.

Most users learn new, complex systems through trial-and-error experience rather than referring to the manuals in a cognitive process that is called 'exploratory learning'. While exploring a system, people find prototypical rules for using the system based especially on frequent tasks. The rules are formed from consistent task procedures and well-expected interface elements on the designed system. These rules play the role of the basis of users' knowledge for performing tasks. The decision making to select and apply those rules interacting with an interface can be aided by properly provided hints on the interface. With appropriate hints, users can learn new systems easily and use them with reduced usability problems. This paper first reports an observation of user behavior performing tasks with prototypical interaction rules and finds a sound set of criteria to extract prototypical interaction rules systematically. Two types of hints are defined. Extending hints prompt users to apply prototypical interaction rules beyond well-known tasks. Preventive hints guide users out of possible capture errors by drawing attention to the variation of rules. A systematic and practical method is proposed to identify the opportunities for both types in designing interfaces. It is then verified through a usability test that the proposed method is effective in identifying the locations and types of appropriate hints to reduce or mitigate usability problems.

Multimodal interfaces are recognition-based technologies that interpret and encode hand gestures, eye-gaze, movement pattern, speech, physical location and other natural human behaviors. Modality is the type of communication channel used for interaction. It also covers the way an idea is expressed or perceived, or the manner in which an action is performed. Multimodal Interfaces are the technologies that constitute multimodal interaction processes which occur consciously or unconsciously while communicating between human and computer. So input/output forms of multimodal interfaces assume different aspects from existing ones. Moreover, different people show different cognitive styles and individual preferences play a role in the selection of one input mode over another. Therefore to develop an effective design of multimodal user interfaces, input/output structure need to be formulated through the research of human cognition. This paper analyzes the characteristics of each human modality and suggests combination types of modalities, dual-coding for formulating multimodal interaction. Then it designs multimodal language and input synchronization method according to the granularity of input synchronization. To effectively guide the development of next-generation multimodal interfaces, substantially cognitive modeling will be needed to understand the temporal and semantic relations between different modalities, their joint functionality, and their overall potential for supporting computation in different forms. This paper is expected that it can show multimodal interface designers how to organize and integrate human input modalities while interacting with multimodal interfaces.

This study was conducted to evaluate the effect intentional contraction of abdominal muscles during lifting above shoulder on the muscles activities of the lower trunk and on the degree of lumbar extension. Fifteen healthy adult males were selected as test subjects. A 5kg weight was raised to the shoulder level, 20cm, and 40cm above the shoulder level. EMG activities of all muscles except the rectus abdominis were significantly greater when subjects were asked to contract their abdominal muscles intentionally during lifting(p<0.05). Degree of lumbar extension also significantly decreased with intentional abdominal contraction during the lifting. Also, degree of lumbar extension significantly increased with increase in lifting height(p<0.05). The results of this study show that intentional contraction of abdominal muscles during lifting above shoulder increases the EMG activities of external abdominis oblique, internal abdominis oblique, and erector spinae.

Motor intentional disorders have been studied by visual examination methods such as cross-response task and Luria loop. To provide more analytical, quantitative information for motor intentional disorders, the present study developed a method which evaluates force control capabilities by the index finger. The assessment method analyzes the finger force control capabilities at four stages(initiation, development, maintenance, and termination) with NK Pinch-GripTM(force resolution= 0.098 N; temporal resolution=50Hz). By applying the assessment method, a patient(age=66) with callosal legion was compared with 6 healthy males(mean age=65.5, SD=2.8), showing significant but different decreases in force control capabilities depending on hand and response location. The assessment method would be of use to better understand various aspects of motor intentional disorders such as the effects of the disorders to the neurological network of the brain and severity assessment of the disorders.

This study aims to compare and contrast the Kansei modeling methods for building a luxuriousness model that people feel about appearance of mobile phones. For the evaluation based on Kansei engineering approaches, 15 participants were employed to evaluate 18 mobile phones using a questionnaire. The results of evaluation were analyzed to build luxuriousness models through quantification I method, neural network, and decision tree method, respectively. The performance of Kansei modeling methods was compared and contrasted in terms of accuracy and predictability. The result of comparison of modeling methods indicated that model accuracy and predictability was closely related to the number of variables and data size. It was also revealed that quantification I method was the best in terms of model accuracy while decision tree method was the best modeling method with small variance in terms of predictability. However, it was empirically found that quantification I method showed extremely unstable predictability with small number of data. Consequently, it is expected that the research findings of this study might be utilized as a guideline for selecting proper Kansei modeling method.

An ergonomic study of school environment and school desks and chairs was conducted in Incheon metropolitan area. Total of 1,145 students from 11 schools participated in questionnaire survey and ergonomic evaluation of school desks and chairs was performed to study structural appropriateness and usability. Results of the study revealed that overall levels of school environment in terms of noise and dust density in the air were higher than safety standard. Desks and chairs were not properly designed with consideration of student's anthropometric characteristics. Prompt improvement of school environment and re-designing of school furniture are required in order to prevent reduced performance in study and physical disorders such as musculoskeletal disorders.

MSDs(Musculoskeletal Disorders) symptoms related to infants-rearing was evaluated on 207 Korean caregivers who taking care of their infants under 36 months on January and February 2005. In Result, 77 percentages caregivers suffered from MSDs symptoms that occurred more than one time for 1 month during the last one year or last for more than one week (by NIOSH). This results shows that MSDs problems of Korean infants caregivers are very serious. Body parts complained of MSDs symptoms were low back(61%), shoulder(60%), hand/wrist(46%), neck(37%), upper back(35%). Parenting stress of the caregivers who had MSDs symptoms was significantly higher than who didn't showed MSDs symptoms.

This study aims to develop luxuriousness models based on both users' subjective feelings and objective material characteristics of automobile crash pad using Kansei engineering approach. Based on the results of literature survey and FGI, 12 Kansei variables describing look-and-feel and touch feel and crash pad design variables were extracted for systematically developing both a conceptual model of luxuriousness and a questionnaire for Kansei evaluation. A total of 41 various crash pad samples and 60 participants(customers: 30, designers: 30) were employed to evaluate the crash pad samples using the questionnaire with 9-point semantic differential scale and 100-point modified magnitude estimate scale. Based on the survey results, luxuriousness models were developed by using regression and quantification I method. In addition, they were compared and contrasted with respect to the relative importance of Kansei variables. Consequently, the developed luxurious model could suggest the preferred combination of material properties of crash pad.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the cumulative fatigue of trunk muscles and the period of recovery time during repetitive lifting and lowering task with two different frequencies(4 times/min and 6 times/ min). Eight healthy males with no prior history of LBD(low back disorders) volunteered for this study. Subjects had 2, 3, 4, and 5 minutes recovery time respectively while they were preforming the lifting and lowering task at 15% level of MVC. EMG signals from six trunk muscles were collected and the fatigue level was analyzed quantitatively. In results, the fatigue levels of LES(left elector spinae), RLD(right lattissimus dorsi), LLD(left lattissimus dorsi), RRA(right rectus abdominis) and LRA(left rectus abdominis) were recovered when 3 minutes recovery time was given at 4 times/min frequency. However, the fatgue level of RES(right elector spinae) was recovered when 4 minutes recovery was given. On the other hand, when 6 times/min frequency was used, the RLD, LLD, RRA and LRA were recovered at 5 minutes of recovery time. But for RES and LES, it took longer than 5 minutes to be recovered. This results can be applied to design the adequate length of recovery time to control the cumulative fatigue of trunk muscles in industry with repetitive lifting and lowering task.