• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.71-76
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• 2012

The purpose of the present study was to compare and analyze differences in job satisfaction and quality of life in relation to the use of movement assisters among workers with severe and slight external physical disabilities and to analyze the effect of job satisfaction on the quality of life of disabled persons who use movement assisters. First, severely disabled persons who used movement assisters showed higher degrees of satisfaction with their work content, working environments, working hours, possibilities for development, communication, and human relations. On the other hand, slightly disabled persons who used movement assisters showed higher degrees of satisfaction only with their working environments. Second, severely disabled persons who used movement assisters perceived a higher quality of life in the areas of family, residence, and work. Slightly disabled persons who used movement assisters perceived a higher quality of life only in the area of family. Third, workers with external physical disabilities who used movement assisters had positive effects on their quality of life arising from job satisfaction in relation to income, job stability, working environments, working hours, possibilities for job development, communication, and human relations that is, a higher job satisfaction was correlated with a higher perceived quality of life.

• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.85-90
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• 2013

Core muscle is the most crucial for rehabilitation of patients with musculoskeletal and nervous problem, there is pain, imbalance and functional movement disorder of upper and lower extremities. In this study, low-frequency electrical stimulator was developed for the purpose increasing the activity of rectus abdominis (RA) and the thickness of transverse abdominis (TrA), internal obliquus abdominis (IO), and external obliquus abdominis (EO). Fifteen female in their 20's was divided into a experiment groups (traditional electrical stimulation group, developed electrical stimulation group) and control group. Low-frequency electrical stimulation was performed in experimental groups for 4 times a week, 4 weeks. The muscle activities (RA) by EMG and muscle thickness (TrA, IO, EO) by Ultrasonogrphy imaging were measured, respectively. In the result, the muscle activity of RA and muscle thickness of TrA and EO were significantly increased at developed electrical stimulation group (p<.05). Therefore, the developed low-frequency electrical stimulation is useful for rehabilitation with CNS and PNS subjects.

• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.91-99
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• 2013

The purpose of this study was to investigate the muscular activity and muscle strength for swing track of upper limbs during rowing exercise. Subject was all twenty healthy adults and they were divided into linear exercise group and elliptical exercise group in random. Subjects performed rowing exercise 3-times for a week and performed all 8-weeks. We measured realtime-surface EMG. Also we measured joint torque of elbow, ankle and lumbar in subjects using BIODEX. The result showed that when rowing exercise, elliptical track exercise had higher muscular activity in trapezius, deltoid, erector spinae, rectus femoris, biceps femoris, gastronemius than linear track exercise on more many muscle of upper and lower limbs. Also elbow joint torque and lumbar joint torque was more higher too. but linear exercise also had higher muscular activity in multifidus, tibilalis anterior than elliptical track exercise. According to this experiment, we found out that elliptical track was more efficient than linear track.

• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.101-107
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• 2013

In this paper, we were to investigate effect of correction to muscle imbalance in lower limbs according to reduction of weight bearing methods of four point of horizontal shaft using two-belt treadmill. Participants were divided to two group according to each ten peoples who have difference of muscle function in left and right legs over 20%. Experiment progressed forty minutes a day three days a week, total four weeks and we estimated the maximal peak torque and average power for testing joint torque in hip, knee and ankle. The results showed that the correction effect of muscle imbalance to the maximal muscle strength was the most effective in hip joint. Also in knee joint, correction effect of muscular reaction was the most effective too. We thought that reduction of weight bearing methods could be positive effect to correct muscle imbalance in lower limbs.

• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.109-115
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• 2013

In this paper, we developed pressure mesuring system for powered wheelchair and tried to validate the usefulness of developed system by pressure measuring experiment with 3D motion analysis. This system consist of 64ch seat FSR(Force Sensitive Resistance) sensor unit, 30ch*2 armchair FSR sensor unit, analog and digital hardware board, 2ch rotary encoder unit and realtime signal processing & display S/W. And each data acquired from this system has sampling frequency of 12bit, 10Hz. Pressure measuring experiment for 10 persons who use wheelchair in real life was performed in the 3D vision analysis room. From the experiment, we obtained result that the center line of body inclined to outside direction during powered-wheelchair rotate any direction.

• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.117-124
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• 2013

Objective : To investigate the actual driving state of the stroke patients who had assessed CPAD. Methods : We conducted a follow-up survey with 48 stroke patients who had assessed CPAD. First, we reviewed the medical chart and then carried out the telephone survey. Results : Of the 48 subjects, 12 were driving and 36 were not driving. Current drivers' CPAD score, it was 54.13, was higher than non-drivers' CPAD score(p<0.05). Those who passed the CPAD were driving more than who failed(OR=8.3, 95%CI=1.931-35.558). Conclusion : The pass group of CPAD have higher chance of driving than fail group and have lower chance of car accidence than fail group. Thus we can apply the CPAD for driving cognitive evaluation tests.

• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.13-18
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• 2013

In this paper design a 8 bit Current Steering D/A Converter for stimulating neuron signal. Proposed circuit in paper shows the conversion rate of 10KS/s and the power supply of 3.3V with 0.35um Magna chip CMOS process using full custom layout design. It employes segmented structure which consists of 3bit thermometer decoders and 5bit binary decoder for decreasing glitch noise and increasing resolution. So glitch energy is down by $10nV{\bullet}sec$ rather than binary weighted type DAC. And it makes use of low power current stimulator because of low LSB current. And it can make biphasic signal by connecting with Micro Controller Unit which controls period and amplitude of signal. As result of measurement INL is +0.56/-0.38 LSB and DNL is +0.3/-0.4 LSB. It shows great linearity. Power dissipation is 6mW.

• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.139-144
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• 2013

Various types of disease in the nervous and musculoskeletal system can change gait, and the gait analysis is very important in determining the progression of the disease. Most methods of analyzing gait are subject to high-priced equipment and spatial restrictions. This study used smart phone images and the walking track analysis program to make a comparative analysis with the existing gait analysis on the basis of the stride length measurements and the changes in the knee joint angle for walking. The test necessary to analyze gait was conducted in seven healthy men, and data about the angle of right and left knee joints and stride length were used to analyze gait. The gait analysis in this study obtained the similar results to the existing ones. The use of the methods suggested in this study will enable gait analysis to be made without high-priced equipment and spatial restrictions.

• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.19-26
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• 2013

This paper propose a surface EMG signal based gait phase recognition method that selects features and channels adaptively. The proposed method can be used to control powered artificial prosthetic for lower limb amputees and can reduce overhead in real-time pattern recognition by selecting adaptive channels and features in an embedded device. The method can enhance the classification accuracy by adaptively selecting channels and features based on sensitivity and specificity of each subject because EMG signal patterns may vary according to subject's locomotion convention. In the experiments, we found that the muscles with highest recognition rate are different between human subjects. The results also show that the average accuracy of the proposed method is about 91% whereas those of existing methods using all channels and/or features is about 50%. Therefore we assure that sEMG signal based gait phase recognition using small number of adaptive muscles and corresponding features can be applied to control powered artificial prosthetic for lower limb amputees.

• 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.