• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.7 no.8
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• pp.207-214
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• 2007

The special educational technology is the combination term of special education and educational technology. These days, the applications of educational technology in special education field is very increasing through the development of IT and the progress of teaching methods. The development of IT bring out the applications of assistive technology. The various development and operation strategies of the individualized educational program have promoted the advancement of teaching methods for the children with disabilities. The purpose of this paper is to inquiry and to present the applicable contents of special educational technology for the children with disabilities. The important study problems of this study are to examine the differences between educational technology and special educational technology, to categorize special educational technology in the view of application and to develop the contents of instructional design and assistive technology device. Finally it is to suggest the progress tasks for the development of the special educational technology.

• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.7-11
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• 2007

A compass device which indicates the right direction using the recorded voice was developed to assist the people who are blind when they are walking and moving to somewhere. The developed voice compass consists of a sensing module which recognizes the terrestrial magnetism with magnetic sensor, voice recorder IC, speaker and microprocessor which controlled all the components. It has 32 directions resolution and can continuously indicates the progressing direction with established time interval for the user convenience. It can help walking of the blind people and designed to be used in various sports and leisure. The performance of the developed device was verified by experiment with person who are blind.

• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.165-171
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• 2017

We suggested the novel actuator mechanism to apply to wearable assistive system for the improvement of quality of life of the elderly or the people with disability using it. Characteristics of metal-hydride (MH) actuator is investigated in the novel actuating concept. The hydrogen equilibrium pressure increases when hydrogen is desorbed by heating a SMH alloys, whereas by cooling that alloys, the hydrogen equilibrium pressure decreases and hydrogen is absorbed. However, there are too long times in heat transfer mechanism to apply the assistive and rehabilitative device. In this study, 3 different SMH module were designed and characteristics of heat transfer in each SMH module were investigated based on the heat simulation.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.53 no.12
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• pp.180-190
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• 2016

This prospective pilot clinical trial mainly focuses on developing dual chamber-based assistive cups which are suitable for stroke patients who have struggled with using there affected arms. It is unable to provide motor and sensory enhancement during drinking activities and to examine the feasibility of the devices for acute phase, even for chronic stroke survivors. The stroke patients(n=16; male=8, female=8), in this trial, were provided informed consent to the investigation. All the individuals participated in 1 weeks of training for using cups, randomized over dedicated dual chamber based assistive cups(DC) or placebo-cups(PC) training. All the participants were assessed within 1 week before and after the intervention period. 3-dimensional motion analysis, sEMG(surface electromyography) and 3-dimensional trunk movement were assessed. The result presents DC data group compared with PC showed, they needed lesser ROM(range of motion) at the phase of drinking in shoulder movements and lesser muscle activities on upper trapezius, deltoid middle fiber and triceps brachii muscles, lesser tilting movement on front and back side in drinking phase, the differences were statistically significant(p<.05). Dual chamber-based assistive cup could be one of efficient way to complete ADLs(activities of daily living), especially drinking tasks, and these evidence data may contribute to determine certain rehabilitation policies related to assistive devise usage.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.376-384
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• 2023

In this paper, we introduce an upper extremity rehabilitation robot, NREH (NRC End-effector based Rehabilitation arm at Home). Through NREH, stroke survivors could continuously exercise their upper extremities at home. NREH allows a user to hold the handle of the end-effector of the robot arm. NREH is a end-effector-based robot that moves the arm on a two-dimensional plane, but the tilt angle can be adjusted to mimic a movement similar to that in a three-dimensional space. Depending on the tilting angle, it is possible to perform customized exercises that can adjust the difficulty for each user. The user can sit down facing the robot and perform exercises such as arm reaching. When the user sits 90 degrees sideways, the user can also exercise their arms on a plane parallel to the sagittal plane. NREH was designed to be as simple as possible considering its use at home. By applying error augmentation, the exercise effect can be increased, and assistance force or resistance force can be applied as needed. Using an encoder on two actuators and a force/torque sensor on the end-effector, NREH can continuously collect and analyze the user's movement data.

• Korean Journal of Applied Biomechanics
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.189-199
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• 2014

The purpose of this study was to compare pflugbogen's biomechanical characteristics between on the ski simulator and snowed ski slope to develop interactive ski simulator. Nine ski instructors(sex: male, age: $29.6{\pm}5.4yrs$, height: $176.0{\pm}5.6cm$, body mass: $76.0{\pm}14.0kg$) belong to Korean Ski Instructors Association participated in this research. 24 Infrared cameras for snowed ski slope experiment and 13 infrared camera for ski simulator experiment were installed near by path of pflugbogen. The participants did pflugbogen on the snowed ski slope and the ski simulator both. During the experiment, the participants weared motion capture suit with infrared reflective makers on it, and plantar pressure sensors in ski boots, so that ski motion and plantar pressure data were collected together. Displacement of COG(center of gravity) movements, trunk flexion/extension angle, adduction/abduction angle, and plantar pressure data were significantly different between on the simulator and ski slope. However, percentage of time of COG movement in the phases during medial/lateral and anterior/posterior movement were not significantly different. Findings indicate that the difference between two groups occurred because the ski simulator's drive mechanism is different from ski motion on the slope. In order to develop the ski simulator more interactively for pflugbogen, the ski simulator's drive mechanism need to be reflected 3D motion data of pflugbogen on the slope that were purposed in this research.

• Journal of Appropriate Technology
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.146-150
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• 2020

Assistive technologies for people with disabilities are often marginalized in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. In this paper, we intend to present the possibility of acquiring tactile information through the tactile display adapting an electromagnetic actuator. The multi-layered display designed for tactile communication has innovatively narrowed the size and spacing of cells in order to express pictures, maps, and graphics. This display has enabled the visually impaired to touch two-dimensional information combining with other assistive technologies so that. It would also provide a technical source of access to STEM education (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) so that students will perform better and be better prepared for advanced education. Moreover, it can be applied to public infrastructure and transportation in smart-city projects on the globe. Hence, this paper introduces the principle of Electromagnetic-actuator and how it can be utilized in many diverse areas.

• Proceedings of the Korean Fiber Society Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.79-80
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• 2003

In order to develop an indoor assistive mobility equipment, we paid attention to the mechanism of locomotion in a snail, or a terrestrial gastropod molluscs. It is known that the snail moves by propagation of a pedal wave generating on a pedal surface of the snail and a pedal locomotion has flexibility far ground condition. An air mattress with a function of a pedal-like locomotion mechanism was developed and the performance of the pedal locomotory air mattress as mobility equipment was discussed.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.55-66
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• 2015

In the perspective of industrial health management, it is important for the employee to decrease their job stress, to improve their productivity and quality of labor. In this study, the job stress, and it's influence on PWI(Psychosocial Wellbeing Index) were investigated by the questionnaire survey of 138 industrial workers who had studied assistive technology in college. The contents of questionnaire consist of the demographic characteristics, job-related characteristics, job stress and psycho-social stress. We evaluated job stress by KOSS-SF(Korean Occupational Stress Scale-Sort Form) and psychosocial stress by PWI-SF(Psychosocial Well-being Index-Short Form). To analyze the results, we evaluated the exposure level of KOSS and PWI by demographic characteristics and job-related characteristics using significance tests. Also, we estimated the relationship among demographic characteristics, job-related characteristics, job stress and psychosocial stress, using correlation analysis. As a results, all workers were found to be in a group under the high risky stress. It showed that the scale index of female's job non-autonomy and pwi were much larger than those of male's. Therefore, to guarantee job autonomy of female workers should be more emphasized, to improve their working environment. Job type had significant relationships with many job stress category; physical environment, job demand, job instability and organization culture. Regarding pwi, the scale index of the workers who is in charge of the civil service such as contacting the disabled and the aged in person, were much larger than that of the other workers. Accordingly, the job stress management program including physical environment, job demand, job instability and organization culture, should be suggested, to decrease the stress of the workers in charge of the disabled and the elders service. The strongest predictors of pwi was organization system through maximum positive relations between organization system and pwi. Therefore, it indicates that improvement of organization system such as a fair merit rating, a manpower supply, demand plan and department cooperation is urgently needed to reduce pwi.

• Korean Journal of Audiology
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.105-111
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• 2014

Assistive listening devices (ALDs) refer to various types of amplification equipment designed to improve the communication of individuals with hard of hearing to enhance the accessibility to speech signal when individual hearing instruments are not sufficient. There are many types of ALDs to overcome a triangle of speech to noise ratio (SNR) problems, noise, distance, and reverberation. ALDs vary in their internal electronic mechanisms ranging from simple hard-wire microphone-amplifier units to more sophisticated broadcasting systems. They usually use microphones to capture an audio source and broadcast it wirelessly over a frequency modulation (FM), infra-red, induction loop, or other transmission techniques. The seven types of ALDs are introduced including hardwire devices, FM sound system, infra-red sound system, induction loop system, telephone listening devices, television, and alert/alarm system. Further development of digital wireless technology in hearing instruments will make possible direct communication with ALDs without any accessories in the near future. There are two technology solutions for digital wireless hearing instruments improving SNR and convenience. One is near-field magnetic induction combined with Bluetooth radio frequency (RF) transmission or proprietary RF transmission and the other is proprietary RF transmission alone. Recently launched digital wireless hearing aid applying this new technology can communicate from the hearing instrument to personal computer, phones, Wi-Fi, alert systems, and ALDs via iPhone, iPad, and iPod. However, it comes with its own iOS application offering a range of features but there is no option for Android users as of this moment.