• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.57-73
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• 2003

Although body pressure distribution is sensitive to movements and is relatively simple to measure even in small space, there are few researches involving applications to driver's posture and its change. The main objective in this study is the application of body pressure distribution measurements for the prediction of the driver's posture and its change. This requires quantitative analyses of the dynamic body pressure distribution, which is the change of body pressure distribution with time. The experiment involved 16 male subjects who drove for 45 minutes in a seating buck. Measurement time, stature group, and lumbar support prominence were selected as independent variables, with subjective ratings of driver's discomfort, body posture data of hip, torso. knee angle, and body pressure data variables as dependent variables. The body pressure change variables and subjective ratings were found to increase as the measurement time increased and body pressure ratio variables reflected the torso angle. From the results and analysis of the body posture data and subjective rating results, it was predicted that the seats and the design of the lumbar supports used in the experiment was not fit for tall subjects, which could also be confirmed through the body pressure distribution data.

• Journal of Auto-vehicle Safety Association
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.52-61
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• 2020

In recent years, the increasing interest in health-care requires the industrial products to be well-designed ergonomically. In the commercial vehicle industry, several researchers have demonstrated the driver's posture has great effect on the orthopedic desease such as fatigue, back pain, scoliosis, and so on. However, the existing sensor systems developed for measuring the driver posture in real time have suffered from inaccuracy and low reliability issues. Here, we suggest our smart vehicle seat system capable of real-time driver posture monitoring by using the air bag sensor package with high sensitivity and reliability. The ergonomic numerical model which can evaluate a driver's posture has been developed on the basis of the human body segmentation method followed by simulation-based validation. Our experimental analysis of obtained pressure distribution of a vehicle seat under the different driver's postures revealed our smart vehicle system successfully achieved the driver's real-time posture data in great agreement with our numerical model.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.385-392
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• 2009

This paper describes the algorithm development of a new body pressure detection sensor for occupant classification system. U.S. Government has required that advanced airbag system should be installed to every automobiles after 2006 according to FMVSS 208 regulation. Therefore, Occupant Classification System should be provided the passenger with safety in order to protect the infants or children that sit in the front passenger seat. When an occupant sits on the chair of the vehicle, deployment of the airbag depends on passenger's weigh distribution and postures. Authors have been developed a new pattern recognition of passenger and weight distribution at the same time by Force Sensing Resistor for the safety.

• IEMEK Journal of Embedded Systems and Applications
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.209-214
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• 2011

This study suggests a Healthcare System for elderly and disabled who have mobility impairment and use a wheelchair for long time. Seating long time in a wheelchair without reducing pressure causes high risk of developing pressure sores. Pressure sores come with great deal of pain and often lead to develop complication. Not only it takes time and effort to treat pressure sores but also increases medical expenses. Therefore, we will develop a device to help to prevent pressure sores by measuring pressure distribution while seating in a wheelchair and wirelessly send information to user device to check pressure distribution in real time. The equipment to measure body pressure is composed of FSR sitting mat which is a sensor measuring part and an user terminal which is a monitoring part. The designed mat is matrix formed FSR sensor to measure pressure. The sensor send measured data to the controller which is connected to the end of the mat, and then the collected data are sent to an user terminal through a bluetooth. Developing a pressure monitoring system will help to prevent those who have mobility impairment to manage pressure sores and furthermore relieve their burden of medical expenses.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.1091-1097
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• 2011

This study aims to develop the plastic suspension assembly which is installed on inside of vehicle seat and supports passenger's back to provide the comfortable feeling. This design is the suspension structure to support the back equally and assemble seat back frame and plastic suspension effectively. The parts of suspension are designed by considering the property of body pressure distribution. As analysis values are approached to measured values by comparing the deformations in the cases of existed spring suspension and developed plastic suspension, the optimum design can be established.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.397-402
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• 2018

Proper seat design is critical to the safety, comfort, and ergonomics of automotive driver's seats. To ensure effective seat design, quantitative methods should be used to evaluate the characteristics of automotive seats. This paper presents a system that is capable of simultaneously monitoring body pressure distribution and surface deformation in a textile material. In this study, a textile-based capacitive sensor was used to detect the body pressure distribution in an automotive seat. In addition, a strain gauge sensor was used to detect the degree of curvature deformation due to high-pressure points. The textile-based capacitive sensor was fabricated from the conductive fabric and a polyurethane insulator with a high signal-to-noise ratio. The strain gauge sensor was attached on the guiding film to maximize the effect of its deformation due to bending. Ten pressure sensors were placed symmetrically in the hip area and six strain gauge sensors were distributed on both sides of the seat cushion. A readout circuit monitored the absolute and relative values from the sensors in realtime, and the results were displayed as a color map. Moreover, we verified the proposed system for quantifying the body pressure and fabric deformation by studying 18 participants who performed three predefined postures. The proposed system showed desirable results and is expected to improve seat safety and comfort when applied to the design of various seat types. Moreover, the proposed system will provide analytical criteria in the design and durability testing of automotive seats.

• The Journal of Korea Institute of Information, Electronics, and Communication Technology
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.138-144
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• 2020

Currently, an autonomous vehicle studies are working to develop a four-level autonomous vehicle that can cope with emergencies. In order to flexibly respond to an emergency, the autonomous vehicle must move in a direction to minimize the damage, which must be conducted by judging all the states of the road, such as the surrounding pedestrians, road conditions, and surrounding vehicle conditions. Therefore, in this paper, we suggest a passenger detection and sharing system to detect the passenger situation inside the autonomous vehicle and share it with V2V to the surrounding vehicles to assist in the operation of the autonomous vehicle. Passenger detection and sharing system improve the weighting method that recognizes passengers in the current vehicle to identify the passenger's position accurately inside the vehicle, and shares the passenger's position of each vehicle with other vehicles around it in case of emergency. So, it can help determine the driving of a vehicle. As a result of the experiment, the body pressure sensor applied to the passenger recognition sub-module showed about 8% higher accuracy than the conventional resonant sensor and about 17% higher than the piezoelectric sensor.

• The Journal of the Institute of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.215-222
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• 2018

Recently, various motion beds have been actively developed and popularized. The motion bed has the functions of height adjustment, back plate rising, knee lifting, tilt function and left / right rotation, and the remote control can conveniently be used by the patient himself or the caregiver to move the patient. However, since the medical bed for use does not have a function of preventing pressure ulcers, exchanging sheets, and transferring patients, it is necessary to disperse body pressure by using a pressure ulcer prevention matrix to prevent pressure ulcers. However, it is accompanied by muscle strength and hard work, and nurses are avoiding difficult nursing care. In this study, we developed the first prototype in the world and confirmed that the system works normally with the goal of developing multifunctional beds that automatically perform the prevention of bed sores, the exchange of sheets and the transfer of patients in order to facilitate such nursing work. It is anticipated that the proposed multifunctional motorized bed in the future will be a model of a medical robot for smart healthcare.

• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.205-211
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• 2014

The purpose of this document is to provide basic data helpful in selecting seating device material by examining the affects of polyurethane foam material on seating pressure. In order to achieve this study objective, four seats, 6cm in height, were produced in hardness of: 13, 28, 25, and $45kg/cm^2$. To measure the sitting pressure distribution (depending on the characteristics of the produced seats), 10 healthy subjects participated in the experiment. XSENSOR was used a measuring device, and each seat was mounted on a wheelchair simulation. By analyzing the obtained data with Average Pressure(AP), Peak Pressure(PP,), and Contact Area(CA), the sitting pressure was measured for five minutes on each seat. This experiment showed the following results: There were significant differences between the AP, PP, and CA in the seat material (p<0.5). While the hardness of $18kg/cm^2$ showed low pressure, the hardness of $45kg/cm^2$ showed high pressure. This study also showed that seat material made of polyurethane should be considered when selecting seats. If polyurethane foam is used in seat recommendations, it will be recommended to use $18kg/cm^2$ for the proper hardness of the seat material.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.16 no.7
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• pp.879-887
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• 2022

In this study, we tried to confirm whether the mechanical sequential elevation method of the body pressure measuring bed actually induces segmental motion for each part of the spine. To this end, a lateral X-ray examination was performed, and it was confirmed that the sequential pressure device induces a step-wise segmentation of the spine by mechanically lifting each part of the spine vertically. Then, pain, walking ability, and depression scale were measured and analyzed in subjects who were aware of back pain. VAS(p<0.05) and ODI(p<0.05) for 10 days tended to decrease in average after bed use. In the gait ability test(p<0.05), as the number of times of bed use increased, the moving time in the test decreased and the moving distance increased. In addition, GSDDF(p<0.05) decreased after bed use. As a result, it was confirmed that the spinal segmentation caused by the heat and acupressure provided by the bed affected gait and depression as well as pain relief.