• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.371-380
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• 2013

Objective: The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of design parameters of vibrotactile signals on semantic association with transmitted information conveying different meanings. Background: As information communication relying on human visual channel becomes excessive, the utility of vibrotactile signals is being interested as a substitute measure of delivering information. Properly designed hapticons may relieve burden of visual communication by rendering distinct and meaningfully compatible haptic sensations. Method: A typical Kansei engineering approach was adopted in this study. Ten most distinctive hapticons were selected among those having different frequencies and amplitudes. Associations between the hapticons and twenty four pairs of adjectives used to describe the state of automobile in control were gathered from thirty subjects using semantic differential scales. Results: The selected pairs of adjectives were summarized by factor analysis into two semantic dimensions named 'Awareness' and 'Directionality'. The experimental hapticons matched with the semantic dimensions were presented as a haptic emotion map. Conclusion: The results from this study support that frequencies and amplitudes of haptic signals play important roles in arousing different human perceptions regarding the two haptic emotional dimensions. Application: Properly designed hapticons with respect to the contents of transmitted information will increase human operator's situation awareness as well as system performance. The result from this study can be used to develop standardized hapticons for active haptic communication.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.469-474
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• 2013

Objective: The purpose of this study was to analyze the risk factors of MSDs for the types of office work. Background: Physical risk factors of VDT(Video Display Terminal) associated with shoulder and neck musculoskeletal disorders(MSDs) include static work postures and workstation status. Method: In this study, office work was divided into data search, data entry and design work(drawings, etc.), and then we were surveyed 7 major work places which was included these works. We recorded working postures and obtained still images, depending on the types of office work. Then, RULA(Rapid Upper Limb Assessment) and ROSA(Rapid Office Strain Assessment) were used to analysis the risk factors. Results: The results of RULA showed that design work was under risk levels and required change, but ROSA showed that data entry and design work were high risk. The RULA is to evaluate the level of risk factors based on the working posture; on the other hand, the ROSA is to consider the use of peripheral, same as chair, keyboard/mouse, monitor and computer workstations. Conclusion: Conclusions of this study, the office work is necessary to identify the risk factors caused by the use of peripheral, as well as working posture.

• Proceedings of the ESK Conference
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• 1997.04a
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• pp.165-175
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• 1997

Brain potential is described by using Euler Lagrange equation derived from Lagrangian based on SMNI(Statistical Mechanics of Neocortical Interaction). It is assumed that excitatory neuron firing is amplitude-modulated dominantly by the sum of two modes of frequency ${\omega}and 2 {\omega}$ . Time series of this neuron firing is numerically calculated. $I_{L}$related to low frequency distribution of power spectrum, $I_{H}$high frequency, and S(standard deviation) are introduced for the effective extraction of the dynamic property in this simulated brain potential. $I_{L}$,$I_{H}$, and S are obtained from EEG of 4 persons in rest state and are compared with thoretical results. It is of importance in various fields related to human well-being such as comfort-pursued industrial design, psychology, medicine to characterize human emotional states by EEG analysis. The pleasant and unpleasant sensation among various emotional states would be demonstrated to be determined in terms of ${\epsilon}$ and ${\gamma}$ parameters estimated by the simulated $I_{L}$-$I_{H}$-S relations.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.167-177
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• 2015

Objective: The objective of this research is to develop evaluation checklist for personal office furniture and apparatus to shape comfortable and efficient worksite for workers' welfare improvement, productivity enhancement and labor force preservation, and to identify office work environment by applying the checklist. Background: Because most office workers work using computers in a sitting posture, the ratio of office workers among total musculoskeletal disorders patients is forecast to increase. In this regard, an effort to prevent and manage such musculoskeletal disorders is required. Method: This research developed evaluation checklist for personal office furniture and apparatus by examining 25 domestic and international ergonomic literature and anthropometric data. This research carried out a fact-finding survey targeting the A Office and B Office of one public agency using the checklist. Results: Although, the checklist items on desks, chairs, computers and other goods conformed to the checklist standards, the following items did not conformed: desk height adjustment, seat board depth adjustment, lumbar support depth, foot rest, wrist rest, mouse tray, headset, speaker phone and Bluetooth. Conclusion: The evaluation checklist for personal office furniture and apparatus and fact-finding survey results are considered to be used as basic data for office work environment and workers' welfare improvement. Application: The information drawn from this research can be helpful to manufacturers' design and manufacture of ergonomic furniture and apparatus.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.533-540
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• 2012

Objective: This paper targets a framework of a hand gesture based interface design. Background: While a modeling of contact-based interfaces has focused on users' ergonomic interface designs and real-time technologies, an implementation of a contactless interface needs error-free classifications as an essential prior condition. These trends made many research studies concentrate on the designs of feature vectors, learning models and their tests. Even though there have been remarkable advances in this field, the ignorance of ergonomics and users' cognitions result in several problems including a user's uneasy behaviors. Method: In order to incorporate compatibilities considering users' comfortable behaviors and device's classification abilities simultaneously, classification-oriented gestures are extracted using the suggested human-hand model and closed-loop classification procedures. Out of the extracted gestures, the compatibility-oriented gestures are acquired though human's ergonomic and cognitive experiments. Then, the obtained hand gestures are converted into a series of hand behaviors - Handycon - which is mapped into several functions in a mobile device. Results: This Handycon model guarantees users' easy behavior and helps fast understandings as well as the high classification rate. Conclusion and Application: The suggested framework contributes to develop a hand gesture-based contactless interface model considering compatibilities between human and device. The suggested procedures can be applied effectively into other contactless interface designs.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.5
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• pp.1454-1463
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• 2021

Demographics, personality traits and attitudes are related to safety behaviors in varied workplaces, but their roles in nuclear power plants (NPPs) have not been fully understood. This study was conducted to explore the roles of a set of demographic, personality and attitudinal factors on self-reported safety behaviors (including safety participation and human errors) among NPP commissioning workers. Survey data were collected from 157 Chinese commissioning workers. Results showed that age and work experience were significantly associated with human errors, but not with safety participation. Neuroticism and conscientiousness were significantly related to human errors, while neuroticism, conscientiousness and agreeableness were significantly related to safety participation. Attitude towards questioning was observed as an antecedent of safety participation, and functioned as a mediating variable in the relation between conscientiousness and safety behaviors. The findings provide evidence-based implications on the design of diverse interventions and strategies for the promotion of safety behaviors in NPPs.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.535-550
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• 2016

Objective: To enhance user experience of the product by using "wow" materials and parts, a framework for participatory emotional design and evaluation was proposed and validated through a case study in this paper. Background: Customers in recent days value a product which provides new feeling and images they want to get while interacting with it beyond its function, quality, and usability. Since the product consists of various parts and materials, "wow" materials and parts which can affect the customer's feeling and emotions are the essential components for changing the user experience. Method: A framework for participatory and human sensibility ergonomic design was considered and applied on developing the aesthetically and emotionally affecting glass panels of changing colors. Design experts defined a target market for this multicolor glass panels and modified the existing designing goal. Constraints for this design modification were identified by market trend research and consulting with the company which owns the technology for checking out its feasibility. The company developed and provided prototype samples as well as their competing materials. Quantitative and qualitative evaluation of the emotional quality was conducted to validate whether the design goal was achieved successfully. Results: The target market for the developing materials was defined as finishing for the buildings. The designing goal was set as to feed new visual sensation of clean and colorful images. The emotional quality of two different types of multicolor glass panels and an ordinary unicolor panel were evaluated quantitatively with semantic differential method. Results showed that the emotion of the subjects for the multicolor glass panels can be abstracted into two dimensions; named 'colorfulness' and 'harmony'. It was found that the developed samples got higher scores in emotional quality for both dimensions compared to the ordinary one. Age was found to be a significant factor for evaluating the emotional quality of colorfulness. Conclusion and Applications: The proposed framework is a valid approach for enhancing the user experience of the product by participatory design of emotional materials and parts. This framework can be applied easily on the emotional design and evaluation of different materials and components.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.23-32
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• 2012

Objective: This research proposes a methodology, which validates a grasp of the customers' emotions in the service design area. Background: As the era of service design has taken its approach, the need for a deliberate design that would reflect the customer's experience had emerged in the area of service. Therefore, a variety of methodologies has been adopted in the field of service design with the purpose of discovery of the customers' needs. Even though the importance of an emotion-sentient research of a service experience increases, its research progress remains to be inadequate in comparison to all the other areas. Method: Having had taken some resources from the emotional studies under other areas of expertise as a base, the concept of volatility of emotions has been introduced as the core element of this research, further followed by an elaboration of its special characteristics. The observation technique under Stakeholder's system: SOMC(Simultaneous Observation Method based on Cooperation) has been proposed in this study as it presents an effective way to grasp the concept of volatile emotions in contrast to the previously existent types of methodologies. Results: The SOMC rather supplements the existing research methods than substitutes the previous ones. In other words, although the existing research system allowed emotion detection, it was difficult to capture the change of momentary and fickle emotions. On the opposite, the SOMC provides a condition allowing a sufficient grasp of the customer's emotions and facilitates emotional capture. Conclusion: For that reason, it is hoped that this piece of research represents a valuable and effective approach in terms of grasping the true needs of the customers on the emotional level, which will in its turn contribute to the improvement of the service quality in the midst of a complicated service condition. Application: Moreover, the purpose of this research is that in its outcome it may serve as a sufficient contribution to the area of emotional studies within the field of service design.

• Archives of design research
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.253-260
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• 2000

Writing instruments or pens have many features not commonly found in other products in terms of their structure and characteristics of use. That is, different pens are usually composed of almost identical parts and/or structure. The fact they work always grabbed in hands considered, the ergonomic design of pens is essential. Reports indicate consumers evaluate pens in writing comfort above all other factors when they select pens. Among various factors related to writing comfort, it shouldspecifically be the ergonomic improvements that design can effectively contribute to. Studies on the pen-grabbing comfort or on approaches based on the understanding of human-work relationships generally lack when compared with fashion-conscious aesthetic approaches to pen design. This paper, therefore, aims to reestablish the ergonomic design criteria including the necessities of specifications required to provide indispensable data for the pen design processes. Consequently, it should produce basic set of information for systematic approach to pen design and development, which is commonly called'concurrent engineering'. Also a cost-effective solution for product diversification strategy could be attributed to a modular system database based on the result of this attempt.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.25-31
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• 2010

It is known from consumer surveys that the interior design of cars greatly influences on consumers' affection. Most notably, the instrument panel which occupies the driver's attention while driving would be one of the main components that affect consumer's affection, but the designer does not often put due importance to this design component. The purpose of this study is to define consumers' affection on the instrument cluster panel in terms of its design factors: color of panel lighting and layout of meters as independent factors. Semantic differentials or affective adjectives that are related to the instrument panel were first derived from surveys, existing studies and the available literature. Then, representative affective factors were drawn using factor analysis and multi-dimensional scaling (MDS). Evaluation of the instrument panel was performed and analyzed by Taguchi's robust design to provide more robust results under various noise factors which are color and material of car interior. Experiment revealed that consumers had five affective factors on the instrument panel and luxurious, charming, and visible affections are grouped into a factor and unique and dynamic affections in another factor. Evaluation of the instrument panel by Taguchi's robust design found that the white color of panel lighting and the panel with four meters was the most preferred design in terms of both the affection of luxury and uniqueness.