• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.253-259
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• 2017

Conventional upper extremity rehabilitation paradigm after brain injury has several shortcomings that is monotonous, simple, and repetitive in exercises over a long period of time, thereby causing training efficiency to decline as a consequence of low interest and participation. To resolve this issue, this paper proposes a new rehabilitative program integrating a wearable device integrated with EMG and motion sensor and a mobile game for the upper limbs' rehabilitative training. The developed wearable device is manufactured in the form of band, making it easy to wear. The mobile game is designed to enable rehabilitative training through games reflective of flexion, extension, abduction, and adduction identified by motion sensors along with grasp motion recognized by EMG signals measured from the wearable device. It also provides a tailored rehabilitative environment suitable for individual patients based on difficulty adjustments. As a consequence of applying the developed program to 14 brain injury in need of the upper limb rehabilitation and taking surveys on the utility of the developed rehabilitative program, the responses indicated that the developed rehabilitative program is far much more interesting and fun than the conventional rehabilitative program, further to the desire of those surveyed to reuse the developed program in the future.

• Physical Therapy Rehabilitation Science
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.152-162
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• 2024

Objective: This study was conducted to analyze the effect of wearable Electromyography-controlled functional electrical stimulation (EMG-controlled FES) System on Gait Function and cardiopulmonary metabolic efficiency during walking in older adults. Design: Cross-section study Methods: Total 22 older adult participants suitable to selection criteria of this study participated in this study. The EMG-controlled FES System, which functions as a wearable physical activity assist FES system was used. All participations performed randomly assigned two conditions (Non-FES assist [NFA], FES assist [FA]) of walking. In all conditions, spatio-temporal parameters and kinematics and kinetics parameters during walking was collected via 3D motion capture system and 6 minutes walking test (6MWT) and metabolic cost during walking and stairs climbing was collected via a portable metabolic device (COSMED K5, COSMED Srl, Roma, Italy). Results: In Spatio-temporal parameters aspects, The EMG-controlled FES system significantly improved gait functions measurements of older adults with sarcopenia at walking in comparison to the NFA condition (P<0.05). Hip, knee and ankle joint range of motion increased at walking in FA condition compared to the NFA condition (P<0.05). In the FA condition, moment and ground reaction force was changed like normal gait during walking of older adults in comparison to the NFA condition (P<0.05). The EMG-controlled FES system significantly reduced net cardiopulmonary metabolic energy cost, net energy expenditure measurement at stairs climbing (P<0.05). Conclusions: This study demonstrated that EMG-controlled FES is a potentially useful gait-assist system for improving gait function by making joint range of motion and moment properly.

• 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.

• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2010

The combination of medical devices and IT convergence technology has made it possible to check health whenever and wherever people want. The recent development of various Ubiqutous Healthcare medical devices ensures the convenient measurements of health variations in daily lives and at home. However, considering that there is a growing prevalence of the devices and a great interest in the development of Ubiqutous Healthcare device, it is urgent to secure the stability and to establish performance evaluation. Therefore, it is needed to develop standard testing methods for the stability and the performance evaluation on before and after selling products. In this paper, I studied the standard testing method of both compulsory tests and performance evaluation which are for the electric stability evaluation on Ubiqutous Healthcare devices.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.20 no.10
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• pp.688-701
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• 2020

In this study, a total of 68 domestic and international papers were selected from 1993 to August 2020 in order to examine the research trends related to artificial intelligence for the visually impaired. The papers were compared and analyzed by the number of papers published by year, research method, research topic, keyword analysis status, research type, and implementation method. As a result of the study, the number of papers during the study period seemed to increase steadily. But in the case of domestic research, It can be seen that it has become active since 2016. As for research methods, development research accounted for 89.7% of both domestic and foreign research. Keywords was in Visually Impaired, Deep Learning, and Assistive Device order in domestic research. And it was in Visually Impaired, Deep learning, Artificial intelligence order in foreign research. There was a difference in the frequency of words. Research type were Design, development and implementation both in domestic and foreign. Implementation method were in System 13.2%, Solution 7.4%, App. 4.4% order in domestic research, and it was in System 32.4%, App. 13.2%, Device 7.4% order in foreign research. As for the applied technology of the implementation method, were in YOLO 2.7%, TTS 2.1%, Tensorflow 2.1% order in domestic research, and it was used in CNN 8.0%, TTS 5.3%, MS-COCO 4.3% order in foreign research. The purpose of this study was to compare and analyze the trends of artificial intelligence-related research targeting the visually impaired, to immediately know the current status of domestic and foreign research, and to present the direction of artificial intelligence research for the visually impaired in the future.

• 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.10 no.2
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• pp.155-162
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• 2016

The purpose of this study was to determine the walking imbalance using the EMG(electromyogram). To confirm the effectiveness of the proposed encoder and acceleration, EMG sensor based gait imbalance determination system. This experiment was carried out to evaluation with a healthy adult male to 10 people. The Encoder device is attached to the hip and knee joint in order to measure the gait signal. The Accelerometer sensors are attached on the ankle. The EMG sensors are attached on the vastus lateralis and anterior tibialis. SI(Symmetry Index) was used as an index for determining the gait imbalance. To confirm if the judgment has been made correctly, the heel, regarded as the cause of unbalanced ambulation, was adjusted from 0 cm to 6 cm with intervals of 1.5 cm. In the cases of the encoder and the EMG, the difference of 0 cm and 1.5 cm is determined into normal walk but the other difference is distinguished into gait imbalance. In the case of the accelerometer, the difference of 0 cm, 1.5 cm and 3 cm is determined into normal walk but the other difference is distinguished into gait imbalance.

• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.20-28
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• 2018

In this research, for the smooth cultural life of seniors, we recruit 92 smart seniors (male: 22, female: 70) and survey their preferred content sub-genre. The survey is mainly based on the two devices (PC, Smartphone) to be used. As a result of the study, there was a little difference in preference on the web pages between both devices, the video contents showed the similar preference, regardless of the device. Also, sub-genres surveyed show higher correlations with similar sub-genres in other content genres. So, If the result of this study is reflected in the development of cultural contents and the composition of content pages, it will be helpful for senior to enjoy the improved cultural life by lowering entry barriers accessing digital media contents.

• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.331-338
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• 2017

In this study, a portable x-ray generator was manufactured and a real-time image acquisition system was constructed using the image intensifier from the generated generator. We have developed a real - time position error verification system that can verify whether the artificial joint position is different from the initial image from the acquired image. The template image of the region of interest is extracted from the reference image using the pattern matching technique and compared with the image to be compared. As a result, It is shown that real - time position error verification is achieved by displaying the difference angle. This system is portable type, has a self-shielding facility, and the output of the irradiation device can be manufactured in a small size of 1kw and can be used as a portable type. In case of emergency patients in the non-destructive field for industrial use, It has proved effective for use in small areas such as feet.

• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.45-50
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• 2013

Recently, a method for detecting animal tinnitus objectively, gap prepulse inhibition of acoustic startling (GPIAS) were reported. However, the GPIAS method is difficult to be directly applied to human tinnitus research because measuring repeatedly startling responses evoked by more than 110 dB SPL acoustic stimuli for human is not easy. In this paper, the auditory late latency response (ALLR) measurement system which can measure conveniently evoked potentials involving the information about the brain cortical activity related with auditory psychologic phenomena such as a tinnitus has been implemented. By using the implemented system, 8 persons with normal hearing sense have been experimented to measure N1-P2 amplitudes of ALLRs evoked by gap prepulse based acoustic stimuli. Through the experimental results, the prepulse inhibitions of all the participants' N1-P2 responses have been observed and their characteristics were evaluated. And it is verified that our implemented system can be utilized as a device for researching and evaluating the objective tinnitus detection method in the future study.