• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.467-476
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• 1997

This paper presents a designing of a digital hearing aid processor (DHAP) chip being operated by a dedicated DSP core. The DHAP for hearing aid devices must be feasible within a size and power consumption required. Furthermore, it should be able to compensate for wide range of hearing losses and allow sufficient flexibility for the algorithm development. In this paper, a programmable 16-bit fixed-point DSP core is employed thor the designing of the DHAP. The designed DHAP performs a nonlinear loudness correction of 8 frequency bands based on audiometric measurements of impaired subjects. By employing a programmable DSP, the DHAP provides all the flexibility needed to implement audiological algorithms. In addition, the chip has low-power feature and $5, 500\times5000$$\mu$$m^2$ dimensions that fit for wearable hearing aids.

• Journal of People, Plants, and Environment
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.145-157
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• 2019

This study was conducted to examine the effects of horticultural therapy on depression and emotional balance of women with hearing impairment. Ten women with hearing impairment registered in the Mokpo branch of the Korean Association of the Hearing Impaired were selected, and participated in the horticultural therapy program composed of 14 sessions from May 15 to July 31. The horticultural therapy program consisted of 'planting tropical orchids,' 'making a dish garden,' 'making plum pickles,' 'decorating a table with flowers,' 'making a hanging pot with succulent plants,' 'making pressed flowers with hydrangea,' 'making a fan with pressed flowers,' 'making a terrarium,' 'making a flower basket,' 'making a mosquito repellent spray,' 'decorating a heart-shaped cup with flowers,' 'making a natural herbal soap,' 'making a hydrangea bouquet' and 'making watermelon salad.' The depression and emotional balance scales were used to examine the effects of the program and the pre- and post-program scores were compared. The mean value of depression statistically significantly decreased from 49.0 points before the program to 43.9 points after the program. In addition, the mean value of emotional balance statistically significantly increased from 0.3 points before the program to 2.3 points after the program. The activity of drawing a picture after each session was effective in reducing depression and improving positive emotional balance by expressing emotions through pictures. The programs preferred by women with hearing impairment included 'making plum pickles,' 'making pressed flowers with hydrangea,' 'planting tropical orchids,' 'making a mosquito repellent spray,' 'making a natural herbal soap,' and 'making watermelon salad.' In conclusion, horticultural therapy programs were effective in reducing depression and improving emotional balance of women with hearing impairment.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.53-63
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to look at the way that speech-to-text (STT) services are used at present, and to explore measures to institutionalize such services for ease of communication for the hearing impaired. The results of this study show the following: 1) 17.8% of those surveyed had experience of using STT services, with younger individuals showing a higher rate of use; and 2) In terms of organizations providing STT services, social welfare organizations followed by civic groups (18.3%) and public organizations (18.3%). The following institutional measures are needed for STT services. First, STT services should be actively promoted as one of the reasonable conveniences defined in the 'Act on the Prohibition of Discrimination Against Disabled Persons, Remedy Against Infringement of Their Rights, etc.' Second, STT services should be additionally listed as one of the clauses of the 'Act on Welfare of Persons with Disabilities'. In particular, establishing a communication system for those with hearing impairments should serve as a catalyst for integration with sign language interpretation and welfare services. If STT services for face-to-face contacts can be improved or further enhanced using ICT, it will not only open the way for a new influx of disabled workers to join vocational rehabilitation, but also help to improve quality of life for the hearing impaired.

• International journal of advanced smart convergence
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.54-62
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• 2020

According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, "Status of Registered Persons with Disabilities", the number of people with disabilities is 2,494,460 as of 2015. The lowest rates of children with disabilities were intellectual disabilities (23%) and mental disorders (33.3%). The highest rates of screening were blindness (97%), heart failure (94.4%), and hearing impairment (92.7%). 65.2% of visually impaired people who have already had a disability at the time of marriage, and the remaining 34.8% can be thought to be the cause of high incidence of disability after marriage. 'SID (Seed in the Dark)' project was designed to recapture the visually impaired parent's desire for attachment and the space difficulties of the blind who want to be a normal parent to their children through a visual impairment of a father with 7-year-old daughter. Using Gear VR(Virtual Reality), the general public was able to feel the surroundings as if they had no vision and focused on the hearing. Especially, We expressed the sound wave visually and added the hilarious game element which grasps the terrain of the maze by sound wave like a 'blind person who perceives the surroundings by sound' and catches up with daughter. People with disabilities who are far from mental illness often have a form of family with children. The fact that the rate of childbirth is high means that there is relatively little problem in daily life. It is wondered that the rate of blindness among the visually impaired, which accounts for 10% of the total disabled, is the highest at 97%. This is because, in the case of the visually impaired, the obstacle is often caused by aging, accidents, or diseases due to inherited causes rather than the visual disorder. In particular, However, the fact that there is an obstacle in vision that accounts for 83% of the body's sensory organs causes other difficulties in the nursing process of children who are non-disabled. Parents do not know the face of child when their visual impairment is severe. Parents are extremely anxious about worry that they will be lost or abducted if their children are not by their side. And that the child recognizes the disability of his or her parents other than the other parents easily and takes it as a deficiency. Since visually impaired parents are mentally mature parents with non-disabled people, they may want their children not to feel deprived of their disability. The number of people with visual impairments has been increasing since 2001, and people with impairments often become disabled. In addition, there is much research on the problem of nondisabled parents who have children with disabilities, while there is relatively little interest and research on the problem of nondisabled child rearing of parents with disabilities.

• 재활복지
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.311-338
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• 2013

The Act of Disability Discrimination and Rights Restriction was enacted in 2008 states that all services including cultural and artistic activities should be fair and easily accessible for disabled. The aim of this study was to determine how to improve the facilities and services for the disabled in exhibition facilities and provide complementary guidelines for amenities designed for people with disabled. The conclusions identified through this study are as follows: 1) It should be installed pedestrian safe passage so that visitors could access from the entrance of the ground to inside of the exhibition facility. 2) The floor of the exhibition hall should be installed not slip, and dangerous obstacles placed in the corridor should be removed. 3) It Should be considered that visually impaired and wheelchair users are use different facilities at toilet and elevator. 4) To guide the visually impaired and hearing impaired it should be prepared palpable map, braille signage, miniature and brochures. 5) Visually impaired and hearing impaired can experience the exhibits by using a variety of senses, therefore it may need to provide assistive devices and human services.

• Journal of Korea Game Society
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.103-110
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• 2016

The hearing impaired have a substantially lower comprehension of audiovisual television programs due to their inability to hear sounds. Therefore, research was needed to improve their understanding by making these programs more accessible. This thesis is based on a proposal to find a solution for automating closed captions.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Disaster Information Conference
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• 2022.10a
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• pp.357-358
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• 2022

지진, 호우, 태풍, 화재 등 긴급한 재난 알림 전달이 필요한 상황에서 청각장애인은 소리를 통한 알림을 인지할 수 없으며 문자를 통한 알림의 인지율도 비장애인에 비하여 상대적으로 낮은 편으로서 일반적인 수단의 재난알림을 신속하게 인지하기 어려운 경우가 많다. 이와 같은 청각장애인의 재난안전 긴급알림 인지의 취약성 문제를 해결하고자 픽토그램을 통한 재난안전 긴급 알림 시스템이 개발되었다. 본 연구에서는 재난문자 통보문의 문구를 기반으로 인공지능을 통하여 청각장애인이 인지하기 보다 용이한 일련의 픽토그램으로 자동으로 변환하는 기술을 개발하고자 하였다. 이를 위해 재난안전 관련 긴급 통보문과 관련되는 픽토그램 기반의 콘텐츠를 수집하고 문자 기반의 그림 출력에 적합한 인공신경망 구조와 훈련방법을 구성하여 인공신경망 기반으로 재난문자에 대응되는 픽토그램 기반의 청각장애인 재난안전 긴급알림이 생성될 수 있도록 하였다.

• Proceedings of the Korea Information Processing Society Conference
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• 2023.11a
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• pp.1010-1011
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• 2023

코로나19 팬데믹 이후 배달 앱 사용량이 증가에 따라 배달 오토바이 수가 급증하면서 이와 관련 사고 또한 급격히 증가하는 추세를 보이고 있다. 특히 청각 장애인들은 도로에서 이러한 종류의 사고 위험에 더욱 노출되어 있으며, 이 문제를 해결하기 위해 구글 앱 인벤터를 사용하여 도로에서 오토바이 소리를 인식하는 인공지능 학습 모델을 개발하였다. 개발된 어플리케이션은 도로에서 오토바이 소리를 감지하고 사용자에게 진동과 사진으로 알림을 보냄으로써 사고를 예방에 기여할 수 있다.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.298-308
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• 2012

This study was designed to examine the phoneme recognition errors of hearing-impaired (HI) listeners on a consonant-by-consonant basis, to show (1) how each HI ear perceives individual consonants differently and (2) how standard clinical measurements (i.e., using a tone and word) fail to predict these differences. Sixteen English consonant-vowel (CV) syllables of six signal-to-noise ratios in speech-weighted noise were presented at the most comfortable level for ears with mild-to-moderate sensorineural hearing loss. The findings were as follows: (1) individual HI listeners with a symmetrical pure-tone threshold showed different consonant-loss profiles (CLPs) (i.e., over a set of the 16 English consonants, the likelihood of misperceiving each consonant) in right and left ears. (2) A similar result was found across subjects. Paired ears of different HI individuals with identical pure-tone threshold presented different CLPs in one ear to the other. (3) Paired HI ears having the same averaged consonant score demonstrated completely different CLPs. We conclude that the standard clinical measurements are limited in their ability to predict the extent to which speech perception is degraded in HI ears, and thus they are a necessary, but not a sufficient measurement for HI speech perception. This suggests that the CV measurement would be a useful clinical tool.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.52-57
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• 2022

Speech consists of the sum of complex sine-waves. This study investigated the perception of electrical hearing by applying the sinusoidal model to cochlear implant simulation. Fourteen adults with normal hearing participated in this study. The sentence recognition tests were implemented using the sentence lists processed by the sinusoidal model which extracts 2, 4, 6, 8 sine-wave components and sentence lists processed by the same sinusoidal model along with cochlear implant simulation (8 channel vocoders). The results showed lower speech recognition for the sentence lists processed by the sinusoidal model and cochlear implant simulation compared to those by the sinusoidal model alone. Notably, the lower the number of sine-wave components (2), the larger the difference was. This study provides the perceptual pattern of sine-wave speech for electrical hearing by cochlear implant listeners, and basic data for development of speech processing algorithms in cochlear implants.