• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.95-100
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• 2024

Vitiligo is a condition characterized by the destruction or dysfunction of melanin-producing cells in the skin, resulting in a loss of skin pigmentation. Facial vitiligo, specifically affecting the face, significantly impacts patients' appearance, thereby diminishing their quality of life. Evaluating the efficacy of facial vitiligo treatment typically relies on subjective assessments, such as the Facial Vitiligo Area Scoring Index (F-VASI), which can be time-consuming and subjective due to its reliance on clinical observations like lesion shape and distribution. Various machine learning and deep learning methods have been proposed for segmenting vitiligo areas in facial images, showing promising results. However, these methods often struggle to accurately segment vitiligo lesions irregularly distributed across the face. Therefore, our study introduces a framework aimed at improving the segmentation of vitiligo lesions on the face and providing an evaluation of vitiligo lesions. Our framework for facial vitiligo segmentation and lesion evaluation consists of three main steps. Firstly, we perform face detection to minimize background areas and identify the face area of interest using high-quality ultraviolet photographs. Secondly, we extract facial area masks and vitiligo lesion masks using a semantic segmentation network-based approach with the generated dataset. Thirdly, we automatically calculate the vitiligo area relative to the facial area. We evaluated the performance of facial and vitiligo lesion segmentation using an independent test dataset that was not included in the training and validation, showing excellent results. The framework proposed in this study can serve as a useful tool for evaluating the diagnosis and treatment efficacy of vitiligo.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.15 no.7
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• pp.2547-2567
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• 2021

It has been widely acknowledged that occlusion impairments adversely distress many face recognition algorithms' performance. Therefore, it is crucial to solving the problem of face image occlusion in face recognition. To solve the image occlusion problem in face recognition, this paper aims to automatically de-occlude the human face majority or discriminative regions to improve face recognition performance. To achieve this, we decompose the generative process into two key stages and employ a separate generative adversarial network (GAN)-based network in both stages. The first stage generates an initial coarse face image without an occlusion mask. The second stage refines the result from the first stage by forcing it closer to real face images or ground truth. To increase the performance and minimize the artifacts in the generated result, a new refine loss (e.g., reconstruction loss, perceptual loss, and adversarial loss) is used to determine all differences between the generated de-occluded face image and ground truth. Furthermore, we build occluded face images and corresponding occlusion-free face images dataset. We trained our model on this new dataset and later tested it on real-world face images. The experiment results (qualitative and quantitative) and the comparative study confirm the robustness and effectiveness of the proposed work in removing challenging occlusion masks with various structures, sizes, shapes, types, and positions.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.25 no.6B
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• pp.1012-1020
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• 2000

In this paper, This paper presents a new algorithm which is used for detecting and extracting human masks from a color still image. The regions where each pixel has a value of skin-color were extracted from the Cb and Cr images, after the tone of the color image is converted to YCbCr from. A morphological filter is used to eliminate noise in the resulting image. By scanning it in horizontal and vertical ways under ways under threshold value, first candidate section is chosen. If it is not a face, secondary candidate section is taken and is divided into two candidate sections. The proposed algorithm is not affected by the variation of illuminations, because it uses only Cb and Cr components in YCbCr color format. Moreover, the face recognition was possible regardless of the degree of shifting face, changed shape, various sizes of the face, and the quality of image.

• The Journal of the Korean dental association
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• v.21 no.2 s.165
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• pp.141-150
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• 1983

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.64 no.1
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• pp.1-4
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• 2021

Ambient air pollution, in particular, particulate matter (PM) pollution imposes serious health concerns such as hospitalization and premature deaths, worldwide. While commercial breathing masks are in use for protection against this hazardous issue, yet their efficiency in filtering PM was not up to the par, besides several other discomforts such as poor breathability due to reduced air flow, sweat production etc. In this study, commercial face mask coated with β-glucan, a high molecular weight polymer is tested for its efficacy in filtering PM. Quantification of PM before and after filtration and microscopic observation (using scanning electron microscopy (SEM)) of the fabric used in filtering the dust pollutants (generated from wood chips and cigarette) showed that β-glucan coated fabric were significantly efficient in capturing PM (size of 10 and 2.5 ㎛ in diameter) than that of the untreated control fabric, wherein the former had filtration efficacy with fold increase of 11.6 and 2.6 towards capturing PM2.5 and PM10 respectively than the latter. Thus, β-glucan coated fabric was found to be effective in filtering PM.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.579-591
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• 2019

This research investigated the needs analysis on consumers of fine dust masks to effectively develop a design prototype. Data were collected through focus group interviews on 32 individuals who have used fine dust masks. As a result, there is a new demand by consumers for technology based design changes that better fit the nose and face. Consumers preferred the smell and feel of traditional Korean paper. Young adults expressed the importance of masks that can be used for protection as well as fashion. The prototype improved the drawbacks of existing models using an origami-inspired design in a variety of colors, patterns and in sizes that are customized to fit the wearer. The proposed prototype is made of Dak felt fibers and jersey materials. It is characterized by downward-facing ear bands made of polyurethane to improve the fit around the ears and chin to more effectively block incoming air. The mask is foldable and has a crease that goes along the chin to increase the amount of enclosed space against the face making it easier to breathe compared to existing mask designs.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.241-245
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• 2021

Background: It has been reported that a new type of headache may develop as a result of face mask use during the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of this study is to investigate the clinical features of face mask-related headache during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study carried out on healthcare workers at the Afyonkarahisar Health Sciences University. The number of workers at our university was established. Sample size was calculated using the G*Power program. A questionnaire consisting of questions relating to pre-existing headache, an aggravation in headache, and de-novo headache was filled out by 3 neurologists with all participants. Results: Data was collected from a total of 375 participants, after the exclusion of 5 individuals who refused to participate. Out of all participants, 26 (6.9%) used a filtering mask, 274 (73.1%) used a surgical mask, 75 (20.0%) participants used a combination of both masks. The number of participants with preexisting headache was 114 (30.4%) had pre-existing headache. Of those with pre-existing headache, 77 (67.5%) healthcare workers had reported an aggravation in their headache after mask use. De-novo headache was observed in 116 (30.9%) of participants. De-novo headache characteristics included throbbing in 17 (14.7%) participants and pressing in 99 (85.3%) participants. In addition, symptoms such as tachypnea, sleep disturbance, and fatigue were found to be significantly higher. Conclusions: This study indicates that healthcare workers develop headaches due to use of masks during the COVID-19 outbreak.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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• 2022.05a
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• pp.592-593
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• 2022

Masks have become a matter of course in life, and overseas travel, which I could always go, has become a fear. Company work, school classes, and concerts, which were essential to face-to-face, have been changed to non-face-to-face, and it has become possible in metaverse space through advanced technology. And various attempts have come into our daily lives.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.31 no.3 s.62
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• pp.440-448
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• 1998

In many developed countries, for example, USA, respirator fit testing is required before entering specific work environment to ensure that the respirator worn satisfies a minimum of fit and that the user knows when the respirator fits properly. Unfortunately because we have not fit test regulation in Korea, a lot of workers wearing respirators may be potentially exposed to hazards. This study was conducted to evaluate the fitting performance for respirators and correlation fit factors with facial dimensions of wearers. 110 subjects (70 males, 40 females) were fit tested for three quarter masks, i.e., two domestic-made Mask 2, and Y and one foreign-made Mask T using PortaCount 8020. A facial dimension survey of the same subjects was conducted to develop a facial dimension grids fer correlation fit factors with facial dimension parameters. A facial dimension grid was developed on the basis of face length and lip length for quarter masks. The results obtained were as follows : 1 Fit factors of Mask T were much higher than those of Masks Z, and Y. 2. Males were fitted more properly than females. 3. Male in box 'f' of grid would be adequately fitted Mask Y and male in box 'b', 'e', 'f', 'h' of grid would be sufficiently fitted Mask T. Female in box 'h' of grid may have a good fitting performance for both Mask Y, and T. But subjects in all boxes of grid would be inadequately fitted Mask Z.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.43 no.6
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• pp.930-940
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• 2019

This study analyzes the facial data required for sheet design in order to pursue the facial compatibility of disposable sheets used in facial mask products that are increasing in popularity as self-care methods. The subjects of the study were 23 facial measurements of 1,001 women in their 20s to 60s from Size Korea's 6th 3D data. Through factor analysis, sheet-related facial measurements were collected into six factors included in the vertical length of each part of the face: length of face surface from the ear to each part of the face, width of eyes, nose, lips, length of nose, vertical length of lower face, width of the head and width of chin. Three sheet face types were classified using six factor scores as variables, and the characteristics of each type differed according to age group. As a result of the discriminant analysis to identify the dimension items that classify the three cluster types, 12 contributing items were extracted out of 23 items. This study provides useful information and data for further studies of products requiring facial fitness.