• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.1-5
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• 2005

A glove design which reflects the changes in hand surface by hand motion can reduce the undesirable effects of use of gloves on hand performance. The present study examined changes in hand length dimensions due to hand motion and identified significant factors affecting the length changes. Recruiting 120 males and females in their 20s and 30s having various hand lengths, this study measured 10 hand length dimensions, defined at 2 hand areas(phalangeal and metacarpal areas) for 5 digits, when the hand is stretched and in fist, and then calculated the percentage of length increase for each dimension. ANOVA and simple-effect analyses showed the length change percentages were mainly different depending on digit and hand area: 111-127% at the phalangeal area and 112-116% at the metacarpal area. The length change percentages of the index, middle, ring, and little fingers in the phalangeal area ascended in order and showed a high correlation(r = 0.94)with the ranges of motion of the fingers.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.23-36
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• 1998

The primary objective of this research was to establish and quantify the relationship between the physical degradation factors of multimedia telecommunications (teleconferencing) system and Subjective human perception. The research was performed in two stages. A field survey of the real users and pilot experiments were carried out in the first stage to determine customers' major complaints and corresponding system degradation factors. A prototype teleconferencing simulator was developed in two separate sound-treated chambers equipped with audio/video equipment running under a custom-developed software program. In the second stage, simulation experiments using the semantic differential methodology were performed utilizing 26 paid participants (14 college students and 12 housewives). The results indicated that audio/video synchronization and the frame rate were the main system factors for both subject groups, but different pattern of factors' influence was found according to the group, implying that the system configuration would hopefully accommodate the characteristics of the end users. Also, a single quality index, developed for system preference, was revealed to be highly correlated with user satisfaction. The results provide some fundamental data on the human subjective perception of multimedia telecommunications quality, and further can help establish the quality standards to enhance service level.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.687-691
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• 2010

Workload assessment is one of the important elements of the human factors evaluation for the nuclear power plants in operation. This paper describes a further study upon the additional elements of the workload which elements should be considered in the subjective workload assessment. We have tried to predict the burden of the work and to improve the work through a comparison of the objective workload and the subjective workload in the previous studies in nuclear power plants. However, there is a restriction to perform a precise assessment because of the limitations of the method itself. The objective workload assessment is performed by relative comparison using the quadrant analysis with objective workload and subjective workload because there were no clear criteria of objective workload assessment. And the subjective workload assessment is performed by NASA-TLX (NASA Task Load Index) which includes six evaluation dimensions of subjective workload. NASA-TLX is difficult to grasp the other aspects that could influence on the subjective workload because the analysis relies on predetermined assessment items. We conduct a factor analysis between the factors that affect the workload and the assessment adopted from ISO 10075 and NASA-TLX. At the same time, this study suggests other evaluation elements which can be added for subjective workload assessment except for evaluation elements of NASA-TLX.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.611-619
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• 2016

Objective:This study aims to analyze the relationships between personality factors measured by Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) scales and the indices of safety and health in the shipbuilding industry. Background: Many researches reported that there were significant relationships between some MMPI subscales and traffic and industrial accidents. Method: This study analyzes 230 male workers in shipyard for their MMPI scores gathered during recruitment process and their safety and health indices from the performance record during their working period. ${\chi}^2-test$ and one-way ANOVA are used for finding the statistical significance for personality factors. The conventional grouping rule for MMPI scales and other grouping criteria considering the attitude of positive answer for the MMPI test during recruitment process are used for analysis. Results: The Hypomania (Ma) and Psychopathic Deviate (Pd) scales of the MMPI are the main factors related to the safety and health related indices for most grouping rules. Depression (D), Psychasthenia (Pt), Hypochondriasis (Hs), Schizophrenia (Sc), and Masculinity and Femininity (Mf) scales are also related to the safety and health indices. Conclusion and Application: The results can be used for understanding the psychological factors in human behaviors and safety and can help professional personnel take the necessary steps in improving safety on the job and also in providing the effective teaching of safe work methods.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.1-9
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• 2001

In the present study, the correlation between subjective assessment and EEG for essential odors were investigated quantitatively. EEG signals were measured from 19 electrodes according to the International 10-20 system (Fp1, Fp2, F3/4, F7/8, Fz, C3/4, Cz, P3/4, Pz, T3/4, T5/6, O1/2) from 8 healthy males subjects for four odor(Rose oil bulgarian, Lemon oil misitano, jasmin abs, Laverder oil france (KIMEX co. Ltd) conditions. The result of the subjective assessment shows the most pleasant odor for each subject. and the power spectrum of ${\alpha}/({\alpha}+{\beta})$ of EEG signals from the most pleasant odor was compared with those from the control condition, which has no odor at all. Power spectrum of ${\alpha}/({\alpha}+{\beta})$ of EEG from the most pleasant odor was increased significantly at T4, T6 compared to the control condition. This result implies that the parameter, power spectrum of ${\alpha}/({\alpha}+{\beta})$, could be an important index for signifying the levels of pleasantness for odors.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.749-755
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• 2011

Objective: The purpose of this study is to assess the reducing effect of workload on developed electro-motion scissors. Methods: To achieve this, we measured the pressure distribution, Joint angle of fingers and JSI(Job Strain Index) for electro-motion scissors and hand-operated scissor in objective assessment and surveyed the uncomfortable degree in subjective assessment. Results: As a result, The peak of pressure in the electro-motion scissors was generally lower than the hand-operated scissors. JSI and overall joint angle of fingers for the electro-motion scissors were remarkably lower than the hand-operated scissors. Also, the subjective uncomfortable degree showed that the uncomfortable point of electro-motion scissors were generally lower than the hand operated scissors. Conclusion: The impact of reducing the work load as well as distributing the pressure around the hand by using electro-motion scissors during grapes pinching was confirmed.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.861-868
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• 2010

This study explored an extended three-dimensional Fitts' law that is more suited for the pointing task than the conventional Fitts' law. The experiments were conducted under the manipulation of the distance to the target, size of the target, and direction of the target's location that can be described by two angles, $\theta1$ and $\theta2$. Considering the starting point as the center of coordinates, $\theta1$ is the angle between the positive z-axis and the target location and $\theta2$ is the angle between the positive y-axis and the projected target location on the x-y plane. From the experimental results, we confirmed that all four variables significantly affect the movement time. As we extended the index of difficulty of the conventional Fitts' model by incorporating $\theta1$ and $\theta2$, we established an extended Fitts' model that showed better accordance with the empirical data than the conventional Fitts' model and 3D Fitts' law of Murata and Iwase, in terms of the $r^2$ and the standard error of the residual between the measured movement time and the predicted value.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.77-82
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• 2009

This paper objected which prevented the accident occurrence of the related farm work, and developed the evaluation indicators for safety supervision on life environment of farmer and farm work to evaluate the health of farm worker and a musculoskeletal disorders. We selected the evaluation item to 82 items for executing the secondary Delphi investigation and the literature research which composed the farm work relationship specialist conference. We applied the index production of the evaluation indicators to decide the detailed element weight from the element which is farm work, the farm machine and the organization, farm workshop, dangerous substance, and life environment through the AHP techniques. Through the result, we can apply other ergonomic evaluation instrument of farm work field, but also the evaluation indicators for safety supervision on farm work.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.133-140
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• 2004

A large number of indices are produced from human sensibility ergonomic data, which are accumulated by the project "Study on the Development of Web-Based Database System of Human Sensibility and its Support". Since the research in this field will be increased rapidly, it is necessary to automate the index processing of human sensibility ergonomic data. From the similarity between indexation and summarization, we propose the automation of this process. In this paper, we study on extraction of keywords, information types and expression features that are considered as basic elements of following techniques for automatic summarization: classification of documents, extraction of information types and linguistic features. This study can be applied to automatic summarization system and knowledge management system in the domain of human sensibility ergonomics.rgonomics.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.361-370
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• 2016

Objective:The aim of this study is to evaluate contributions of individual finger forces associated with various levels of submaximal voluntary contraction tasks. Background: Although many researches for individual finger force have been conducted, most of the studies mainly focus on the maximal voluntary contraction. However, Information concerning individual finger forces during submaximal voluntary contraction is also very important for developing biomechanical models and for designing hand tools, work equipment, hand prostheses and robotic hands. Due to these reasons, studies on the contribution of individual finger force in submaximal grip force exertions should be fully considered. Method: A total of 60 healthy adults without any musculoskeletal disorders in the upper arms participated in this study. The young group (mean: 23.7 yrs) consisted of 30 healthy adults (15 males and 15 females), and the elderly group (mean: 75.2 yrs) was also composed of 30 participants (15 males and 15 females). A multi-Finger Force Measurement (MFFM) System developed by Kim and Kong (2008) was applied in order to measure total grip strength and individual finger forces. The participants were asked to exert a grip force attempting to minimize the difference between the target force and their exerted force for eight different target forces (5, 15, 25, 35, 45, 55, 65, and 75% MVCs). These target forces based on the maximum voluntary contraction, which were obtained from each participant, were randomly assigned in this study. Results: The contributions of middle and ring fingers to the total grip force represented an increasing trend as the target force level increased. On the other hand, the contributions of index and little fingers showed a decreasing trend as the target force level increased. In particular, Index finger exerted the largest contribution to the total grip force, followed by middle, ring and little fingers in the case of the smallest target force level (5% MVC), whereas middle finger showed the largest contribution, followed by ring, index and little fingers at the largest target force levels (65 and 75% MVCs). Conclusion: Each individual finger showed a different contribution pattern to the grip force exertion. As the target force level increase from 5 to 75% MVC, the contributions of middle and ring fingers showed an increasing trend, whereas the contributions of index and little fingers represented a decreasing trend in this study. Application: The results of this study can be useful information when designing robotic hands, hand tools and work equipment. Such information would be also useful when abnormal hand functions are evaluated.