While the operator's working environment employs the digital devices and technology which are not be fully digitalized due to its technical constraints, it has been changed to the hybrid environment in which digital and analog elements are combined. The hybrid environments need to study its characteristics and the guidelines for the proper design and evaluation purpose. This paper describes the characteristics and evaluation guidelines for hybrid environment through studying the characteristics of digital and analog environment based on the related human factor guidelines and literatures. The result of this paper would be applied for the human machine system such as main control room in nuclear power plant working under hybrid environment. And also, it may be applied for the evaluation of the generic human working environment which digital and analog elements are jointly used.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of the driving performance and workload according to changing driving environment and types of steering wheel. Twelve drivers who participated in this study consisted of two groups; six Japanese as the left-lane drivers who was accustomed to driving on left-hand side of the road, and six Europeans, Americans, and Korean as the right-lane drivers who was accustomed to driving on right-hand side of the road. They were asked to operate a driving simulator while using two different types of steering wheel (for the left-hand side driving and the right-hand side driving). During the experiment, a range of data were measured including driving performance, mental workload, and eye movements which were recorded in order to identify the amount of time looking towards the in-vehicle route guidance. Results indicated that the use of the steering wheel by parallel moving led to increase high attentional demand and worse glance behavior to traffic signs for the left-lane drivers. In the case of the right-lane drivers, the effects by changing driving direction were more effective than the types of steering wheel due to their habit or traits.

In this study, anthropometric analysis and usability evaluation for four-wheeled walker were carried out and then ergonomics design guidelines were proposed. In anthropometric analysis, design factors of four-wheeled walker were firstly identified and anthropometric design guidelines were made using Korean human scales. Design suitability for two typical four-wheeled walkers was analyzed in based on anthropometric design guidelines. Usability evaluation for two typical walkers was also performed through observation method and expert evaluation. Several usability problems were identified and design solutions were proposed for the design improvement of four-wheeled walker. Finally a design model of four wheeled walker considering analysis results was proposed.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate aging (young and old), gender (male and female), and handle shape effects on grip force, finger force, and subjective comfort. Four handle shapes of A, D, I, and V were implemented by a multi-finger force measurement (MFFM) system which was developed to measure every finger force with different grip spans. Forty young (20 males and 20 females) and forty old (20 males and 20 females) subjects participated in twelve gripping tasks and rated their comfort for all handles using a 5-point scale. Grip forces were calculating by summation of all four forces of the index, middle, ring and little fingers. Results showed that young males (283.2N) had larger gripping force than old males (235.6N), while young females (151.4N) had lower force than old females (153.6N). Young subjects exerted the largest gripping force with D-shape due to large contribution of the index and middle fingers and the smallest with A-shape; however, old subjects exerted the largest with I-shape and the smallest with V-shape due to small contribution of the ring and little fingers. As expected, the middle finger had the largest finger force and the little finger had the smallest. The fraction of contribution of index and ring fingers to grip force differed among age groups. Interestingly, young subjects provided larger index finger force than ring finger force, whereas old subjects showed that larger ring finger forces than index finger force in the griping tasks. In the relationship between performance and subjective comfort, I-shape exerting the largest grip force had less comfort than D-shape producing the second largest grip force. The findings of this study can provide guidelines on designing hand tool handle to obtain better performance as well as users' comfort.

The purpose of this study was to analyze the somatotypes of women in the early 20's, which were likely to deform due to bad posture in growth period. Accordingly, bodies of women aged 20 to 24, whose growth stopped, were measured directly and indirectly, and factors related to body shapes were extracted, body shapes were categorized based on the data, and the characteristics of each body shape were analyzed. As a result, 10 factors related to body shapes were extracted in the factor analysis, and body shapes were categorized into 6 types. Type 1 was the volume of body that was big and the longest; and the general frame was large. The straight body shape with small back protrusion; the shoulder is relatively thick and the width of the shoulder was normal. Type 2 was the volume of body that was the biggest and the upper body was the longest; the general frame was of average height. The forward body shape with the back flat; the shoulder was very thick, wide, and serious leaning forward. Type 3 was a body that was thin and the shortest. The sway-back body shape with big curvature at the back; the shoulder was thin, narrow, and straight. Type 4 was a body that was short stature, and the general frame was of average build. The forward body shape with the most serious back protrusion; the shoulder was normally thick, narrow, and straight. Type 5 was a group with small body, and the lower body and general frame are long. The sway-back body shape with protrusion at the upper shoulder and the sides leaning backward; the shoulder was thin, wide, and leaning forward. Type 6 was a thin and short body; and the general frame was small. The lean-back body shape with the smallest back protrusion and leaning backward; the shoulder was thin, narrow, and leaning backward. Characteristics of the classified body shapes can be used in producing ready-made clothes, and it is hoped that there will be follow-up studies on clothing pattern design and production based on this result.

This study proposed a practical metaphor development process that consisted of three steps: 1) identifying major functions, 2) developing metaphor candidates, and 3) evaluating appropriateness of the candidates. In the first step, a total of 27 functions might be implemented in a driver information system (DIS) in the near future. Then, three metaphor candidates were selected from existing metaphors, which were reported to be more practical than others by previous studies. Finally, the candidates were evaluated on their appropriateness for driver information systems by using a quick and simple survey. As a result, two metaphors (a PC and a secretary) were identified as the most appropriate ones. The two metaphors can be used to design a variety of interfaces and interactions for driver information systems. In addition, the development process proposed in this study could be applied to developing metaphors for emerging devices with a variety of functions (e.g. PMPs, MP3s, and electronic dictionaries) as well as driver information systems.