• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.40 no.12
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• pp.1067-1076
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• 2016

This paper describes the development of a hybrid-powered wheelchair (HPW) for the elderly. The proposed HPW has novel mechanical and control features compared with conventional powered wheelchairs. An ergonomic back-braking mechanism was designed in order to stop the wheels easily. In terms of control features, the HPW remarkably reduces the muscle power required by combining various assistive functions, such as wheel torque assistance, friction/inertia compensation, gravity compensation, and the one-hand driving algorithm. For wheel torque assistance, strain gauges were attached to the hand-rim in order to measure the wheel torque applied by a human. Gyroscopes and an accelerometer were attached to the wheel and chair respectively for friction and inertia compensation. An inclinometer was attached for gravity compensation and the one-hand driving algorithm was included for patients who can only use one hand. The one-hand driving algorithm controls the angular velocity of the uncontrolled wheel by using a gyroscope and pressure sensors attached to the bottom of the seat. Finally, the performance of the proposed motion assisted algorithm was verified through various experiments.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.685-694
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• 2016

Visibility of lane marking is impaired at night, or in case of rain, and thereby threatens traffic safety. Recently, various studies and technology have been developed to improve lane marking visibility, such as the extension of lane marking life expectancy (up to 1.5 times), improvement of lane marking equipment, improvement of lane marking visibility (32.7%) by applying phosphorescent material mixed paint, and expressway lane design standards alternative (length 6m, gap 12m, width 13cm: 27.8% of painted surface are reduced) adoption with ergonomic analysis. In this study, a set of cost-benefit analyses was performed for the cases where such techniques were applied. Based on the literature review, 26.9% of traffic accidents would be prevented by improving lane marking visibility by 32.7%; accident reduction benefit was calculated as much as 12.5 billion KRW. Meanwhile, total increased cost when introducing phosphorescent material mixed paint and lane design standards alternative is calculated as 30.6 billion KRW. However, economic feasibility could not be secured with 0.41 of cost-benefit ratio when applied to the expressway network as a whole. Additionally, cost-benefit (B/C) analysis was applied to each of the top 20 night accident hot spots and the results of B/C ratios were between 0.67 and 4.20, showing that 11 out of 20 spot sections of expressway can have economic feasibility. This results indicate, with this kind of pavement marking applied to accident hot spots in rural expressway, better visibility and economic feasibility can be guaranteed through traffic accident reduction. Some limitations and future research agenda have also been discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.674-680
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• 2013

As the range of marine leisure activity gradually expands to ocean-going, a habitable cruise boat has been getting the limelight. Advanced countries in the marine leisure industry in Europe and North America have already secured their competitiveness in designing and building cruise boats by elegant design, ergonomic structure and fuel efficiency through the adoption of light-weight hull materials. In contrast, mostly small power boats are developed and built in Korea, and GFRP take up the most of hull materials. This study inquired into the design and characteristics of a 50ft-class CFRP that ocean-going is possible. The hull-form of the CFRP cruise boast were analyzed to propose a hull form for the designed ship (MMU-C.B), and based on that, the design model of the MMU-C.B was built. Finally, the MMU-C.B's characteristics of the resistance performance and hull-planing were found by comparative reviews with the results of model tests of GFRP pleasure yachts.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.29-43
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• 2015

Objective: The aim of this study is to develop management guidelines and a procedure for an anthropometric suitability assessment of the main control room (MCR) in nuclear power plants (NPPs). Background: The condition of the MCR should be suitable for the work crews in NPPs. The suitability of the MCR depends closely on the anthropometric dimensions and ergonomic factors of the users. In particular, the MCR workspace design in NPPs is important due to the close relationship with operating crews and their work failures. Many documents and criteria have recommended that anthropometry dimensions and their studies are one of the foremost processes of the MCR design in NPPs. If these factors are not properly considered, users can feel burdened about their work and the human errors that might occur. Method: The procedure for the anthropometric suitability assessment consists of 5 phases: 1) selection of the anthropometric suitability evaluation dimensions, 2) establishment of a measurement method according to the evaluation dimensions, 3) establishment of criteria for suitability evaluation dimensions, 4) establishment of rating scale and improvement methods according to the evaluation dimensions, and 5) assessment of the final grade for evaluation dimensions. The management guidelines for an anthropometric suitability assessment were completed using 10 factors: 1) director, 2) subject, 3) evaluation period, 4) measurement method and criteria, 5) selection of equipment, 6) measurement and evaluation, 7) suitability evaluation, 8) data sharing, 9) data storage, and 10) management according to the suitability grade. Results: We propose a set of 17 anthropometric dimensions for the size, cognition/perception action/behavior, and their relationships with human errors regarding the MCR design variables through a case study. The 17 selected dimensions are height, sitting height, eye height from floor, eye height above seat, arm length, functional reach, extended functional reach, radius reach, visual field, peripheral perception, hyperopia/myopia/astigmatism, color blindness, auditory acuity, finger dexterity, hand function, body angle, and manual muscle test. We proposed criteria on these 17 anthropometric dimensions for a suitability evaluation and suggested an improvement method according to the evaluation dimensions. Conclusion: The results of this study can improve the human performance of the crew in an MCR. These management guidelines and a procedure for an anthropometric suitability assessment will be able to prevent human errors due to inadequate anthropometric dimensions. Application: The proposed set of anthropometric dimensions can be integrated into a managerial index for the anthropometric suitability of the operating crews for more careful countermeasures to human errors in NPPs.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.30 no.9_10 s.157
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• pp.1378-1388
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• 2006

We conducted a questionnaire survey of 481 Korean female college students and measured anthropometrically 2 girth of their bodies(bust, under bust girth) in order to understand the psychological needs about brassiere and the physical characteristics of consumers aged between 19 and 25(the 1924 generation). There were two major problems to be solved to improve the fit of brassiere in aspect of size. First, most brands for this age group aimed at product differentiation mainly on visual design not on brassiere size. According to the body measurements, the distribution of brassiere size had 6 sections '70AA, 70A, 70B, 75AA, 75A and 75B cups' showing a rate of 63.8% but most brands for this age group were producing '75A, 80A, 85A, 75B, 80B and 85B cups' showing a rate of 24.7%. Second, most subjects of this survey didn't know their own breast size and the sizing system of brassiere which are necessary in order to select the proper brassiere size. And most subjects were wearing a bigger size brassiere than their own body size even though one was in the range of '75A, 80A, 85A, 75B, 80B and 85B'. It might be possible that the dimensions of brassiere products in the market and the sizes indicated on the labels do not correspond. For increasing the consumer satisfaction it is necessary to adjust the production rate of brassiere sizes and to develop ergonomic brassiere products with proper dimensions and shapes for each brassiere size.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.10 no.8
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• pp.1495-1501
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• 2006

In this paper, It is purposed to Develope Development of Home Automation Remote Control System using W Color touch LCD(liquid crystal display). This control remotely with remote control innovative and ergonomic design, right combination of LCD and hard buttons and its industry leading technology puts your customers at the cutting-edge of home entertainment. Remote Control for casual users is programmed automatically programmed with multiple free step macros and IR commands. Radio Frequency (RF) operation provides 50-100 inch range though walls and doors. Editor includes a vast library of IR codes for hundreds of brands and models of A/V components. This database is constantly growing with the inclusion of new devices every month. Keep your software up to date by using the Live Update feature. Rather than un-installing and re-installing the software, you download updates to the software from the internet.

• Journal of environmental and Sanitary engineering
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• v.21 no.4 s.62
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• pp.19-28
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• 2006

The purpose of this study was to investigate the related factor for the prevalence of musculoskeletal symptoms among 212 sewing worker. The survey was performed with self-administered questionnaire for the risk factors related to musculoskeletal disorders(MSDs) from August 5 to 7 in 2005. The prevalence of musculoskeletal symptoms were 75.8% and the those of the local symptoms were 71.7 % for shoulder, 60.4 % for neck, 35.8 % for arm and 50.9 % for wrist. The risk factors related the self-reported MSDs had not shown in general characteristics. But, there was a significant difference between daily working hour and wrist, working speed and neck, the degree of satisfaction and wrist for work related factor. Also, it was shown the significant difference between chair height and neck, the height of sewing machine and wrist among the space below work station, neck, waist for the prevalence of musculoskeletal symptoms. The significant correlation was shown for daily working hour and wrist, working speed and arm, work load and shoulder and the degree of satisfaction and arm for work related subjective symptom. Considering above results, it is suggested the ergonomic design be provided to working hour, the height of chair and work station as well as daily working hour even there is a significant difference for the prevalence of symptoms in each body part for sewing workers.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.347-356
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• 2010

The purpose of this study is to analyze the spine stability by comparing muscle activation in various scaffold working conditions. The independent working conditions were designed by two levels of working height, existence and absence of safety handrail, and the two levels of expertise. The corresponding activities of the agonist and antagonist muscles of spine were simultaneously recorded by using EMG. As results, novice worker showed increased muscle activity while doing the task on the 2nd floor, absence of handrail. And expert showed the increase of co-contraction while working on the 2nd floor without handrail. Such co-contraction was found to increase the spine stability when the working condition become risky. On the other hand, the co-contraction was prolonged, the spine muscle fatique and disc pressure could be increased, which would increase the risk of musculo-skeletal disorder. The results of co-contraction in this study indicates that the motor control system responds to maintain the stability of the spine particularly when workers cognitively recognize the danger of falling or imbalance. This study also quantitatively accounted for the biomechanical cause of LBP among workers who has to prevent themselves from falling. Therefore, if can be said that safe environment preventing falling can also prevent workers from MSDs as well. Such knowledge can be applied to design ergonomic workplace environment as well as movable scaffold.

• Journal of The Korea Institute of Healthcare Architecture
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.35-42
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• 2011

Efficient space plans are built upon relations of both human and physical compositions, and the standard of the interaction is basically the human scale. Especially in medical areas, the character of the users within human scale design environment is quite significant. Unlike large hospitals with great plans and scalability performed by experts, mid-sized clinics tend to have limited space, designed by non-specialists who highlight aesthetics over functionality in floor plans which leads to poor quality in medical service. For this reason, this study will include the application of human scale based therapy rooms within the clinic from a physical standpoint and will further analyze and pinpoint any room for improvement to further enable more efficient ergonomic space planning. In this study, theoretically will contemplate over human scale, mid-sized clinic, therapies, and therapists, while the case study will include status of the recent human scale based mid-sized clinic from a physical viewpoint, classification and analysis amongst human and physical compositions chosen by discretion from either a newly opened or a newly re-modeled clinic within the last 2 years, which has 15 beds or more, minimum 3 physical therapists, with more than 5 different therapy facilities in the metropolitan area in order to measure the human scale of therapy rooms in a mid-sized clinic. As a result, the area where improvement can practically be applied is the physical composition, which does not include human scale like human composition factors as therapists and patients, and hence, I suggest the human scale applied efficient medical space plan become the base of this study and look forward to subsequent improvement in the quality of medical services.

• IE interfaces
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.288-296
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• 2005

Many jobs and activities in our daily lives require squatting postures. The fore part includes housekeepers, farmers, and welders and the latter includes a wide variety of activities such as housekeeping; planting, cultivating and harvesting various agricultural products; grinding, welding, etc. It is speculated that prolonged squatting postures without any supporting stool would gradually cause musculoskeletal injuries to workers. This study is conducted to examine the proper height of stools according to the position of the working materials and to develop wearable stools for workers with squatting posture. Forty male and female subjects participated in the experiment to find the proper height of stools according to the position of the working materials. Subjects were asked to squat and work with 3 different working positions: floor level; ankle level; shank level of 3 different stool height conditions: 10cm height; 15cm height; and 20cm height. After 5 minutes of maintaining a squatting work posture while sitting on the different height stools, Likert summated rating method as well as pairwise ranking test was applied to evaluate the user preferences for provided stools under the conditions of different working positions. The results of statistical analysis show that the subjects preferred 10cm height stool for floor level, 15cm height stool for ankle level, 20cm height stool for knee level. We thus strongly recommend to use appropriate height stools in accordance with the different working positions. Moreover, a prototype wearable stool was designed such that workers with squatting posture do not need to move the stool while they are moving about. The purpose of developing wearable stool was to decrease the physical stress and hence promote worker's health who work with squatting posture.