• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.727-734
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• 2010

The objective of this study was to evaluate the resting postures of the fingers and wrist based on the biomechanical model in term of hand posture (neutral, pronation, and supination) and gender (male and female). The finger and wrist joint angles were measured with VICON motion system. The EMG system was used to examine the muscle activity in the resting condition. The participants consisted of twenty male and twenty female students. The angles of the fingers and wrist were analyzed by means of the coordinate system associated with the International Society of Biomechanics. Hand posture was significant for all the joints. The finger and wrist joint flexed in supination more than in neutral and pronation. The hand posture and gender were not significant for the results of muscle activity, but it had larger muscle activities in supination more than in neutral and pronation.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.29-37
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• 2007

This study was performed to evaluate the characteristics of transmitted vibration to hand-arm system under different work posture while operating a light-weighted powered hand grinder. For the experiment, 8 different types of wrist posture (natural, unlar-flexion, radual-flexion, flexion, extension, complex posture, and etc.) and 3 types of feed force (20[N], 50[N], 70[N]) were considered. 10 male subjects were employed to polish metal plate with a hand grinder. All of them were normal and healthy with no history and symptom of the work related musculoskeletal disorders in the dominant hand. Vibration acceleration data were recorded with sampling rate, 2048[Hz]. In addition, unweighted overall R.M.S. acceleration at the tool and wrist, and transmissibility between them were used to evaluate factors from the recorded tri-axial vibration acceleration. The results indicate that transmissibility of natural wrist posture was significantly higher than others. In addition, as the feed force becomes larger, the vibration was transmitted in large quantities to hand-arm system through radius.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.27-31
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• 2014

Background: Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is a common work-related peripheral neuropathy. In addition to grip force and repetitive hand exertions, wrist posture (hyperextension and hyperflexion) may be a risk factor for CTS among workers. However, findings of studies evaluating the relationship between wrist posture and CTS are inconsistent. The purpose of this paper was to conduct a meta-analysis of existing studies to evaluate the evidence of the relationship between wrist posture at work and risk of CTS. Methods: PubMed and Google Scholar were searched to identify relevant studies published between 1980 and 2012. The following search terms were used: "work related", "carpal tunnel syndrome", "wrist posture", and "epidemiology". The studies defined wrist posture as the deviation of the wrist in extension or flexion from a neutral wrist posture. Relative risk (RR) of individual studies for postural risk was pooled to evaluate the overall risk of wrist posture on CTS. Results: Nine studies met the inclusion criteria. All were cross-sectional or case-control designs and relied on self-report or observer's estimates for wrist posture assessment. The pooled RR of work-related CTS increased with increasing hours of exposure to wrist deviation or extension/flexion [RR = 2.01; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.646-2.43; p < 0.01: Shore-adjusted 95% CI: 1.32-2.97]. Conclusion: We found evidence that prolonged exposure to non-neutral wrist postures is associated with a twofold increased risk for CTS compared with low hours of exposure to non-neutral wrist postures. Workplace interventions to prevent CTS should incorporate training and engineering interventions that reduce sustained non-neutral wrist postures.

• Proceedings of the ESK Conference
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• 1996.10a
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• pp.238-243
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• 1996

Grip strength is a very important basic data for ergonomic design of hand tools, grips, handles and etc.. Excessive grip strength is contineously exerted to handle the machines or tools, it might cause a musculoskeletal disorder such as cumulative trauma disorders. Capal tunnel syndrome is a typical nerve disorder anomg CTDs. In this paper we have measured the grip strength under sitting and standing posture for Korean adults ; 113 male and 105 female aged from 20' to the above 50' . And this paper performed statistical analysis for driving out characteristics between grip strength and anthropometric data. The results are as follows ; (1) The maximum girp strength is exerted under standing posture with the elbow in full extension(180 .deg. ) for both of male and female (2) There is significant difference in posture, sex and right left hand (3) Grip strength decreases with age for male, but it traces an inverted U curve for female (4) Grip strength has a correlation with age, weight, height, BSA, forearm length, hand length, thickness of wrist, circumference of wrist and breadth of wrist for male

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.73-83
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• 1997

It is improtant to get accurate information about the grip strength for designing ergonomic grips and handles. It has been known that the excessive and repetitive use of grip force and unnatural posture of the wrist may cause cumulative trauma disorders (CTDs) such as carpal tunnel syndrome, tendrome, tendonitis, DeQuervan's disease, etc. In this paper we have measured the grip strength for sitting and standing posture for Korean adults ; 114 males and 105 females aged from the 20's to above the 50's. And this paper performed statistical analysis for deriving characteristics between grip strength and anthropometric data. The results are as follows ; (1) The maximum grip strength posture is exerted under standing posture with the elbow in full extension (180 .deg. ) for both males and females (2) There is significant difference among posture, sex and right and/or left handedness (3) Grip strength decreases with age for male, but it traces an inverted U curve for female (4) Grip strength has corre- lations with the age, weight, height, BSA, forearm length, hand length, thickness of wrist, circumference of wrist, and breadth of wrist for males.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2006.07d
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• pp.1929-1930
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• 2006

Human like robot arm posture for grasping by considering the shape of the target object is quite a challenge in the field of robotics. In this paper, an optimized grasp posture with respect to the shape of the object considering the wrist joint angle and elbow elevation angle, in order to verify that the grasp posture is human like has been proposed. Given a target object, the candidates for grasp are computed by the method described in this paper. For each candidate, the closed loop inverse kinematics has been solved for the corresponding hand position and orientation. From the obtained joint angles through inverse kinematics, the elbow elevation angle has been computed and compared with the elbow elevation angle obtained through human movement data by the characteristic equation. After considering all the candidates, the hand position and orientation with minimum wrist joint and difference in elbow elevation angles has been utilized as the optimized grasp posture. Simulation results are presented.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.11-27
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• 2005

The objectives of this study are to analyze representative wrist postures while using hand tools and parts at general assembly processes, to evaluate perceived discomfort on the wrist when external loads are present, and to suggest an evaluation and prediction model of perceived discomfort. Sixteen subjects participated in an experiment to appraise perceived discomfort. Three types of the wrist postures with five levels of non-neutralities were analyzed when five levels of external load were applied to each posture. The ANOVA results showed that the perceived discomfort of wrist postures was significantly affected by both the wrist posture and external load (p$<$0.001). It was also shown that some of the interactions between external loads and the wrist postures(Flexion/$Extension^*$Load, Flexion/$Extension^*$supination/pronation, ulnar/radial $deviation^*$supination/pronation) were significant(p$<$0.001). The result implies that a new posture classification scheme for workload assessment methods may be needed to reflect such effects of external load and wrist posture. A regression model of perceived discomfort was developed with respect to wrist posture and external load from the experimental data. A subsequent experiment revealed that the correlation coefficient between the predicted values of perceived discomfort from the model and the actual values obtained from the experiment was about 0.98. It is expected that the results help to properly estimate the body stress resulting from worker's postures and external loads and can be used as a valuable design guideline to analyze potential hazard of musculoskeletal diseases in industry.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.33-41
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• 2008

The goal of this study was to compare wrist posture, muscular loads and perceived comfort among wearable wrist rest (WR), general wrist rest(GR), no wrist rest(NR) during keyboard and mouse use. Thirteen subjects performed text editing task in three test conditions: wearable wrist rest(WR), general wrist rest(GR), no wrist rest(NR). During text editing task, the right wrist posture was recorded by an electrogoniometer and the muscle activity in upper trapezius, anterior deltoid, extensor digitorum, extensor carpi ulnaris were recorded by electromyography. After all of the tests, the subjects rated perceived comfort. Working with wearable wrist rest(WR), compared to no wrist rest(NR) and general wrist rest(GR), decreased wrist radial/ulnar deviation and also decreased muscle activity in upper trapezius and anterior deltoid. At the same time, in work with wearable wrist rest(WR), the subjects rated more comfort at 5 of 8 body locations(shoulder, upper arm, wrist, hand, body).

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.43-52
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• 2006

The goal of this study is to investigate the ergonomic factors in designing or selecting the hand tool handle. Electromyogram (EMG) were measured for various wrist postures and handle sizes under two loading conditions. Anthropometric data were measured and the correlation with EMG measurement data were analyzed. Investigations of this study show that wrist posture should be neutral for minimum muscle tension and optimum handle size can be found by measuring the EMG measurement data. It show that hand width and EMG measurement data is greatly correlated also. This study can be a guide of designing or selecting a hand tool, but further study with large sample sizes and various groups is needed for making general conclusion.

• Proceedings of the Korean Operations and Management Science Society Conference
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• 1990.04a
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• pp.151-162
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• 1990

Occupational disease among typists such as Carpal Tunnel Syndrome(CTS) and tendonitis has increased along with rapid expansion of office automation. During typing, the posture can be defined as forearm pronation, ulnar abduction, wrist extension and finger flexion. The CTS results from awkward posture between forearm-wrist-hand and the keyboard arrangement. Therefore, ergonomic principles should be emphasized in keyboard design. The objective of the study is to improve keyboard design by analyzing anatomical posture of forearm and hand during typing. An experimental study was performed to investigate relationships between a keyboard and typing performance. Results showed that typing performance is dependent to angles and slopes of a keyboard. Statistical analysis indicated that the suggested ergonomic keyboard improved typing speed significantly(17%).