• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.29-34
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• 2010

The fully implantable hearing devices (FIHDs) have been studied to compensate the defect of conventional hearing aids. Typically, a microphone for FIHDs was implanted under the skin of the temporal bone. So, implantable microphone characteristics can be affected by the eating food, chattering teeth and moving artifact. In this paper, we fabricated the physical model that was similar to characteristics of human temporal bone and skin, and we measured implanted microphone sensitivity for effect of bone conducted noise signal. For the measurement of microphone sensitivity, we applied 1 kHz pure sounds that were transmitted to implanted microphone and sine wave vibrations of varied frequency were simultaneously transmitted through the artificial bone. As a result, sensitivity of implanted microphone can be modified by bone conducted signal and this phenomenon was confirmed at varied frequency band.

• Journal of Korea Multimedia Society
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.471-480
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• 2008

The deaf can not recognize useful sound informations such as alarm, doorbell, siren, car horn, and phone ring etc., because they have the hearing impairment. To solve this problems, portable hearing assistive devices which have suitable environment sound recognition methods are needed. In this paper, the DTW algorithm for sound recognition system with new active slope weighting constraint method was proposed. The environment sound recognition methods consist of three processes. First process is extraction of start point and end point using frequency and amplitude of sound. Second process is extraction of features and third process is classification of features for given segments. As a result of the experiment, the recognition rate of the proposed method is over 90%. And, the recognition rate of the proposed method increased about 20% than the conventional algorithm. Therefore if there are developed portable assistive devices which use developed method to recognize environment sound for hearing-impaired persons, they could be more convenient in life.

• IEMEK Journal of Embedded Systems and Applications
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.47-56
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• 2016

There are many assistive devices for the visually impaired. They are becoming smart. In this paper, we propose a device that help route guidance for a visually impaired person. It is composed of a smart phone, cane, and hands-free devices. The smart phone helps a route guidance. The cane detects an obstacle and transmits it to the hands-free device. The hands-free device communicates with a visually impaired person. We here present their architecture, signal flow, configuration, and their circuit diagrams.

• Journal of Multimedia Information System
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.227-232
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• 2022

Disasters are now becoming commonplace and especially the vulnerable group such as the disabled, the elderly, children and foreigners are in a state of overlapping disasters. In this situation, ATSC 3.0-based UHDTV disaster information service for the visually and hearing impaired has been developing. This study focuses on the demand data collected through in-depth interview with the impaired. The demand analysis data is very important to development process of technology. The results of the interview show that it is essential to link the UHDTV disaster signals with home-network, IoT, wearable devices, and various assistive devices for the impaired (hearing aid, smart light bulbs, warning light, etc.). In outdoor space, UHDTV disaster information must be connected to public display media, digital signage, kiosk, screens in bus or taxi. If communication aids for the visually and hearing impaired are equipped with a function that can transmit and receive disaster information, it will help to minimize disaster damage.

• Journal of Digital Contents Society
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.251-257
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to analyze the satisfaction and requirements of users' devices after development of tablet based AAC(Augmentative and Alternatice Communication) application for Android. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the satisfaction and the requirement of tablet - based AAC application, Were assessed using the Korea Assistive Technology Assessment Tool (KAAT). As a result of satisfaction evaluation of tablet-based smart AAC device, all the items including device, service, and everyday life showed positive response satisfying from 5 point scale to more than 4 point scale. However, it was relatively low in the items of effectiveness, manipulation and convenience. Some of the improvements in the application include the enlargement of the symbol sound and the simplicity of symbol editing. The results of the study suggest that continual updates of m Smart AAC applications, the simplicity of symbolic editing, application usage and training should be improved. The satisfaction evaluation results of this study and the feedback of potential users will be the guidelines for improving and complementing the functions of existing smart AAC devices.

• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.195-201
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• 2015

In this study, IT education contents have been developed based on the u-Learning approach for people with hearing impairment, focusing on allowing the user to learn from anywhere and anytime. Specifically, this study applies HTML5 to implementing IT education contents(JSP, Oracle) for the deaf because HTML5 enables the learner to access the contents through both web and mobile device on various platforms including android, Mac OS, and PC etc. The results of this study are as follows: First, the online computer courses are mostly supposed to be compatible with diverse types of mobile devices. However, some of the contents could not be run on applications residing in web and mobile devices because the contents tend to be developed using FLASH. HTML5 is the effective way to overcome the compatibility problem. Second, FLASH and HTML5 contents authoring tools have been compared in terms of their strong and weak points by applying the developed contents to those tools. The study also suggests that the future work would be needed in order to implement wide variety of event functions with HTML5. Lastly, design strategies enabling access through web and mobile devices have been analyzed in accordance with u-Learning design guidelines for the deaf and mobile application accessibility guidelines. However, in the latter case, the future work regarding design guidelines needs to be conducted to improve the educational accessibility depending on the level of impairment.

• Journal of Korean Physical Therapy Science
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.16-32
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• 2024

Background: Exercise equipments and assistive devices for the disabled are being developed, but improvements for usability are still needed. The purpose of this study was to improve and utilize the developed exercise equipment and assistance devices by conducting usability test for people with spinal cord injury. Design: Cross-sectional Study. Methods: Scenarios and usability indicators were derived by conducting a preliminary usability test, 5 non-disabled men and women aged 19 or older. In the scenario, a total of 9 tasks were sequentially performed, including 2 tasks of entry and exit, 5 tasks of assistance devices and weight stack adjustment, and 2 tasks of pre exercise and exercise. The usability indicators were task success (success or fail), execution time (sec), safety, and convenience. For safety, 7 questions (Likert scale, 1~5 point) related to safety, stability and hazard were derived, and for convenience, the system usability scale (SUS score) was used (range: 0~100, 50 percentile rank is 68 point). Results: As a result of the usability test of people with spinal cord injury, there was a large variation among subjects in the task of adjusting the position of the pulley and support in the execution time (11.64~25.44 seconds), and one person failed to adjust the pulley. The safety level showed a lower score (score = 3 points) than other items in the item of entrapment or skin pressure, and in the case of SUS, the average score was 64.5 points, which was close to the acceptable level. Conclusion: Through the usability test, it was confirmed that exercise equipment for the disabled needs improvement in operability, pinching, and pressure, and that it is necessary to develop an assistive device that provides unrestrained posture information (biofeedback) to maintain correct posture during exercise.

• Journal of Multimedia Information System
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.249-256
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• 2020

Learning methods using various assistive and smart devices have been developed to enable independent learning of the disabled. Pointer control is the most important consideration for the disabled when controlling a device and the contents of an existing graphical user interface (GUI) environment; however, difficulties can be encountered when using a pointer, depending on the disability type; Although there are individual differences depending on the blind, low vision, and upper limb disability, problems arise in the accuracy of object selection and execution in common. A multimodal interface pilot solution is presented that enables people with various disability types to control web interactions more easily. First, we classify web interaction types using digital devices and derive essential web interactions among them. Second, to solve problems that occur when performing web interactions considering the disability type, the necessary technology according to the characteristics of each disability type is presented. Finally, a pilot solution for the multimodal interface for each disability type is proposed. We identified three disability types and developed solutions for each type. We developed a remote-control operation voice interface for blind people and a voice output interface applying the selective focusing technique for low-vision people. Finally, we developed a gaze-tracking and voice-command interface for GUI operations for people with upper-limb disability.

• Information Systems Review
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.23-41
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• 2022

This case research investigates on how hearing aids, which is one of disability aids, is becoming a smart device, focusing on the case of Starkey Hearing Technologies(Starkey Inc.). Starkey, founded in 1967, has been a leader in innovating forms and functions of hearing aids, and has recently introduced the world's first hearing aid implemented with AI and biological sensors. In this study, history of disability aids, hearing aids(especially Starkey Inc.'s), smart wearable devices and smart earphones are compared. It has been found that recently, there has been a breakdown of boundaries between hearing aids and smart wearable devices in terms of their functions, since entertainment and life assistant functions are added to hearing aids. Based on this trend, the development model of disability aids and smart wearable devices are derived, and according social changes are discussed.

• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.27-34
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• 2013

Most of existing biomedical signal measurement devices measure and evaluate biomedical signal only in a single device. Also, even if the device is multi-functional, those biomedical signals can be measured by selection of the user. In this paper, we implemented wristband-style biomedical signal measurement device for u-healthcare system to solve the problem above. Implemented device uses 4 infrared sensors to measure the pulse, 2 electrodes to measure the skin conductivity, and 3-axis accelerometer to measure momentum. Also, we propose a communication packet frame for transmitting biomedical signal data to PC or mobile device, using Zigbee. Studies show that our device has the error rate of less than twice for pulse measurement, 85.6%, 84.7% reliability for momentum measurement, and the skin conductivity has changed according to the user's physical status.