• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.305-312
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• 2014

In this study, in order to quantitatively confirm walking rehabilitation degree, we analyzed EMG pattern simulated abnormal gait and normal gait by applying a curve fitting. We calculated the suitable high-order function for EMG signal, and classified them into 5 groups by using cluster analysis. Depending on the distance from normal pattern group, we listed the pattern group and then the distribution of each variables were confirmed. The amplitude-decreased pattern was the most similar to the normal pattern, but the reversed pattern showed the lowest similarity. Due to the smaller overlapping range, the distribution of the groups were possible to classify using the value of variable. The standard deviation of each term coefficient was compared to indicate the quantitative rehabilitation extent, and the higher value was confirmed as the pattern is close to the normal pattern. Consequently, the representation of quantitative rehabilitation extent is expected to contribute to the more effective rehabilitation method study.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.469-474
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• 2012

The aim of this study is to develop an ergonomic design of magic saw handle considering user experiences. Background: Frequent use of hand tool can cause musculoskeletal disorders by inadequate wrist posture, excessive strength, repetitiveness, friction and pressure, vibration, etc. A hand tool that is inappropriately designed has higher risk causing musculoskeletal disorders. Complaints for the design of magic saw handle has been raised by many users according to the increasing use of magic saw. Method: Hand tool has to be designed considering worker's characteristics and task condition to prevent worker's musculoskeletal disorders. For this, user experiences for magic saw handle were measured through questionnaire survey and observation. Results: An ergonomic design of magic saw handle considering user experiences was proposed and then its design suitability was evaluated in comparison with the existing handle design using EMG and subjective evaluation. Conclusion: The proposed handle design showed higher satisfaction and lower muscular fatigue. Application: The results of this study can be effectively used to develop a new magic saw.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.143-152
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• 2017

The main purpose of this research was to examine the EMG characteristics of driver's upper limb and driving performance for operating accelerator and brake pedal by using four types of left hand control devices(Push/Pull, Push/Right angle, Push/Rock, Push/Twist) during simulated driving. The persons with disabilities in the lower extremity have problems in operation of the vehicle because of functional impairments for controlling accelerator and brake pedal. Therefore, if hand control device is used for adaptive driving controls in persons with lower extremity loss, the disabled people could improve their quality of mobility life by driving a car. Twenty subjects were involved in this research to assess driving performance and EMG activities for operating accelerator and brake pedal by using four types of left hand controls in driving simulator. We measured EMG responses of six muscles(posterior deltoid, middle deltoid, biceps, triceps, extensor carpi radialis, and flexor carpi radialis) during pulling and pushing movement with four types of left hand controls for acceleration and braking. STISim Drive 3 program was used for evaluation test of four types of left hand control devices in straight lane course for time to reach target speed and brake reaction time. While operating the four types of left hand controls for acceleration, EMG activities of posterior deltoid in normal subjects were significantly increased(p < 0.05) compared to the disabled subjects. It was also found that EMG responses of triceps and posterior deltoid were significantly increased(p < 0.05) when using the Push/Right angle type than Push/Pull type. While operating the four types of left hand controls for braking, EMG activities of flexor carpi radialis and triceps in subjects with disability were significantly increased(p < 0.05) compared to the normal subjects. It was shown that muscle responses of posterior deltoid, middle deltoid and triceps were significantly increased when using the Push/Right angle type than Push/Rock type. Time to reach target speed and brake reaction time in subjects with disability was increased by 2.5% and 4.6% on average compared to normal subjects. The person with disabilities showed a tendency to relatively slow performance in acceleration at the straight lane course.

• Proceedings of the Korea Society of Design Studies Conference
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• 2003.05a
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• pp.248-249
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• 2003

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.43 no.5
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• pp.361-368
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• 2022

The purpose of this study was to develop a hand rehabilitation training system for hemiplegic patients. We also tried to find out five hand postures (WF: Wrist Flexion, WE: Wrist Extension, BG: Ball Grip, HG: Hook Grip, RE: Rest) in real-time using multi-channel EMG-based deep learning. We performed a pre-processing method that converts to Spider Chart image data for the classification of hand movement from five test subjects (total 1,500 data sets) using Convolution Neural Networks (CNN) deep learning with an 8-channel armband. As a result of this study, the recognition accuracy was 92% for WF, 94% for WE, 76% for BG, 82% for HG, and 88% for RE. Also, ten physical therapists participated for the usability evaluation. The questionnaire consisted of 7 items of acceptance, interest, and satisfaction, and the mean and standard deviation were calculated by dividing each into a 5-point scale. As a result, high scores were obtained in immersion and interest in game (4.6±0.43), convenience of the device (4.9±0.30), and satisfaction after treatment (4.1±0.48). On the other hand, Conformity of intention for treatment (3.90±0.49) was relatively low. This is thought to be because the game play may be difficult depending on the degree of spasticity of the hemiplegic patient, and compensation may occur in patient with weakened target muscles. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a rehabilitation program suitable for the degree of disability of the patient.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.227-233
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• 2014

In this paper, to quantitatively evaluate the degree of rehabilitation for the disabled of unilateral lower extremity, we compared the EMG pattern of normal and simulated abnormal gait. The EMG signal was measured at a rate of 1 kHz on the quadriceps and biceps femoris, the pressure sensor was attached to the sole in order to distinguish the gait cycle. Integrated EMG (IEMG) was obtained by the gait cycle, and classified four patterns that were the normal gait pattern, amplitude decrease pattern, reversed pattern, and irregular pattern. For comparison of the patterns, a curve fitting was performed using the trigonometric functions. The result of curve fitting, the method using a variable A that corresponds to the amplitude of the regression curve was able to distinguish the reverse pattern and remaining pattern. The coefficient of determination ($R^2$) representing coincidence of the pattern of the regression curve and EMG was confirmed the biggest value at the normal gait. Therefore, the degree of normal gait can be confirmed using the coefficient of determination. This results show that it is possible to quantitatively confirm the degree of unilateral lower extremity disabled rehabilitation, and it will be contributed to the study of efficient rehabilitation methods by objective analysis.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.310-315
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• 2010

Estimation of muscle forces is important in biomechanics, therefore many researchers have tried to build a muscle model. Recently, optimization techniques for adjusting muscle parameters, i.e. EMG-driven model, have been used to estimate muscle forces and predict joint moments. In this study, an EMG-driven model based on the previous studies has been developed and isometric and isokinetic contraction movements were evaluated to validate the developed model. One healthy male participated in this study. The dynamometer tasks were performed for maximum voluntary isometric contractions (MVIC) for ankle dorsi/plantarflexors, isokinetic contraction at both $30^{\circ}/s$ and $60^{\circ}/s$. EMGs were recorded from the tibialis anterior, gastrocnemius medialis, gastrocnemius lateralis and soleus muscles at the sampling rate of 1000 Hz. The MVIC trial was used to customize the EMG-driven model to the specific subject. Once the subject's own model was developed, the model was used to predict the ankle joint moment for the other two dynamic movements. When no optimization was applied to characterize the muscle parameters, weak correlations were observed between the model prediction and the measured joint moment with large RMS error over 100% (r = 0.468 (123%) and r = 0.060 (159%) in $30^{\circ}/s$ and $60^{\circ}/s$ dynamic movements, respectively). However, once optimization was applied to adjust the muscle parameters, the predicted joint moment was highly similar to the measured joint moment with relatively small RMS error below 40% (r = 0.955 (21%) and r = 0.819 (36%) and in $30^{\circ}/s$ and $60^{\circ}/s$ dynamic movements, respectively). We expect that our EMG-driven model will be employed in our future efforts to estimate muscle forces of the elderly.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.41-50
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• 2023

This study aims to develop electromyography (EMG) textile electrodes and assess their performance and signal stability by examining variations in layer count and fabric types. We fabricated the electrodes through layering and pressing techniques, focusing on configurations with different layer counts (Layer-0, Layer-1, and Layer-2). Our findings indicate that layer presence significantly influences muscle activation measurements, with enhanced performance correlated with increased layer numbers. Subsequently, we created electrodes from five distinct fabrics (neoprene, spandex cushion, 100% polyester, nylon spandex, and cotton canvas), each maintaining a Layer-2 structure. In performance tests, nylon spandex fabric, particularly heavier variants, outperformed others, while the spandex cushion electrodes showed superior stability in muscle activation signal acquisition. This research elucidates the connection between electrode performance and factors like layer number and electrode-skin contact area. It suggests a novel approach to electrode design, focusing on layer properties and targeted pressure application on specific sensor areas, rather than uniformly increasing sleeve pressure.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.9-19
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• 2022

In this study, a systematic review was conducted to analyze the method of applying sEMG to evaluate the swallowing function of the elderly at each stage of swallowing, and to help objectively measure the swallowing stage of the older adults in clinical practice. From 2011 to 2021, 7 studies that met the selection criteria were selected using Pubmed, Scopus, and Web of Science (WoS). As a result of this study, the older adults and adults were divided into an experimental group and a control group and the swallowing phase was analyzed using sEMG only for the older adults. sEMG was used to evaluate swallowing in the oral and pharyngeal stages, and the sEMG attachment site was attached to the swallowing muscle involved in each stage. The collected sEMG data were filtered using a bandpass-filter and a notch-filter, and were analyzed using RMS, amplitude, and maximum spontaneous contraction. In this study, it was found that sEMG can be used as a tool to objectively and quantitatively evaluate the swallowing function in stages. Therefore, it is expected that this study will activate various studies that incorporate sEMG to evaluate the swallowing function in stages.

• The korean journal of orthodontics
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• v.36 no.3 s.116
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• pp.218-227
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• 2006

Although the submentovertex radiograph and surface EMG are not often used due to the difficulty of interpretation, they are accepted as useful diagnostic and analytic aids for skeletal asymmetry. There have been reports which state that they were also useful for the evaluation of vertical skeletal relations. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the correlations between EMG data, measurements from submentovertex radiographs, facial types and facial asymmetry following examination of 60 asymmetric patients. The radiographic corpus length were greater in the nonaffected sides (p<0.001), gonion to interspinosum axis were greater in the affected sides and the mandibular condyle and gonion were located more anteriorly in the non-affected sides than in the affected sides but not significant (p=0.07). The activity of the anterior temporal muscle in rest position was higher in the affected sides than in the non-affected sides (p<0.01). The activity of the masseter muscle at maximum clenching was found to be nonsignificant but it was higher in the affected sides than in the non-affected sides (p=0.09). There was positive correlation between facial index and the intercondylar axes angle (p<0.01). There was positive correlation between masseter muscle activity in maximum occlusion and facial index in the affected and non-affected sides (p<0.05). The results demonstrate that the submentovertex radiograph and EMG can provide useful information for the evaluation of horizontal and vertical skeletal relations.