• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.213-219
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• 2017

Objective: The present study identified the minimum legible text size by an experiment for eight combinations of background and text colors, which will be used in designing visual information on group-view display (GVD). Background: Information on minimum legible text size is needed to design the visual information presented on GVD in a radioactive waste control room. Method: The experiment was conducted for 22 male participants (age: mean = 37, SD = 6.7; visual acuity: over 0.8) who were recruited by considering demographic characteristics of current control room operators. Eight combinations of background and text colors were considered and the minimum legible text size was determined for each combination by applying the method of limits, one of psychophysical methods. Results: The minimum legible text size was significantly different in accordance with the combination of background and text colors. Statistical analysis results showed that luminance contrast and color contrast between background and text influenced the minimum legible text sizes. Conclusion: This study concluded that the minimum legible text size is 8 minute of arc for various combinations of background and text colors. Application: The minimum legible text size identified in the present study can be utilized in designing visual information on GVD at the main control room in a radioactive waste facility.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.397-406
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• 2012

Objective: The aim of this study is to determine legible Korean font sizes within in-vehicle information systems(IVISs) in diving conditions. Background: Font legibility within IVISs is one of important causes on its' safe operations during driving. Several researches proposed some guidelines on the legible English font sizes within IVISs. On the contrary, appropriate Korean font sizes have been hardly known in spite of the typological differences between English and Korean. Therefore, more systematic researches for improving the legibility on Korean font size within IVISs have been required. Method: In this study, an experiment was performed with the following experimental factors: the existence of vibration, the color contrasts(white on black, black on white), the font types(HDR, CubeR, Gothic), and the font sizes(6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24pt). To fit the experimental conditions into real driving environments, the illuminance was controlled to 15lx by using LED lamp and the distance between IVIS and participants was kept to 70cm. Moreover, all participants took the shutter glasses for employing well-known occlusion techniques. Results: The experimental results showed that 'HDR' and 'Non-vibration + Black on white' group took the shortest response time, and decreasing slopes of the response time with increasing font sizes were slowing down at 14pt then flattened out at 22pt regardless of the existence of vibration and color contrasts. Conclusion: The minimum size for legible Korean font would be about 14pt(5.47mm) and the optimum size would be about 22pt(8.59mm). Application: The guideline on the Korean font sizes from this study will be applied to design an IVIS in the future.

• Journal of Korean Ophthalmic Optics Society
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.19-25
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• 2013

Purpose: The degree of the pupil covered with tinted region of circle soft contact lens was determined according to the illuminant conditions in everyday life and the change of visual acuity by its covering was further investigated. Methods: The circle contact lens having the non-tinted area of 6.2 mm in the center of the lens was applied on 82 eyes in their 20s and their minimum separable visual acuity and minimum legible visual acuity were determined under the luminances of 50 and 370 lux. Results: The covering of pupil was not found when wearing circle contact lens under 370 lux, however, some pupil covering ranged from 0.40 to 1.70 mm was observed in all subjects under 50 lux. The minimum separable visual acuity and minimum legible visual acuity were significantly decreased by the wearing of circle contact lens under 50 lux and the correlation between the larger pupil size of subjects and more decrease of visual acuity was observed. Furthermore, the decrease of minimum separable visual acuity was larger than the case of minimum legible visual acuity indicating that minimum separable visual acuity was largely affected by the covering of pupil. Conclusions: The consideration is necessary for the lens wearers and the manufacturers since the wearing circle contact lens in low-light indoor or nighttime activities may affect directly visual acuity.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.92-100
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• 2009

This study evaluated the effects of the syllable number(one, two), font type(gothic, myung), color contrast (black on white, white on black), display type(paper, LCD), age(20s, 60s) and character size(2~80pt) on the Korean characters' legibility. Total twenty subjects from two age groups (20s: n=10, 60s: n=10, five male and five female in each group) participated in the legibility test. A target panel was presented in the distance of 50 cm, and subjects conducted a reading tests for, in total, 16 treatment conditions (full combination of syllable number, font type, color contrast and display type). Results showed that two-syllable words revealed better legibility than one-syllable character. The main effects of the age, display type, font type, color contrast, and character size were statistically significant(p<0.01). Paper showed better legibility than LCD, particularly in the 20s and in the character sizes of less than 9pt. Gothic revealed more correct answers than Myung, particularly in the 60s, paper, and white on black conditions. It is expected that these results can provide basic data for the determination of the Korean characters' minimum legible size standards. For example, the minimum legible size for the Gothic and black on white characters presented in the paper should be 5pt for 20s and 1lpt for 60s if the 75% correct reading(3 correct answers in this study) was applied for the legibility criterion.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.1-7
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• 2009

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the legibility of one-syllable Korean characters with the participation of sixteen subjects. The experiment considered nine factors including age (young and old), gender (male and female), illuminance (150lx and 600lx), viewing distance (50cm and 200cm), material type (paper and LCD), typeface (Ming and Gothic), thickness (plain and bold), color contrast (black letter/white background and white letter/black background), and complexity (simple, complex, and number) to examine main effects with a $2^{6-3}\times3$ fractional factorial design. The dependent variables were minimum character size of 100% correctness, maximum character size of 0% correctness, and minimum character size of comfortable reading preference. The results of analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed that age, illuminance, viewing distance and complexity were significant for all dependent variables, except gender which was significant only for the minimum character size of comfortable reading preference. In general, the young could see twofold smaller size letters than the elderly. The subjects could see smaller sized letters with the illuminance of 600lx and viewing distance of 50cm than 150lx and 200cm, respectively and also with numbers, simple characters, and complex characters in that order. The findings of this study could be characterized about the legibility of Korean characters and be good resources for developing its standard.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.13 no.8
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• pp.3444-3451
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• 2012

Safety and health related information for the proper use and handing of pesticides is usually printed on the surface of the pesticide products in the form of texts. But, the guidelines or standards for the appropriate presentation of the texts for the pesticide products are most vague or not practical. Thus, this study aimed to provide the preliminary guidelines for the text sizes based on the legibility experiments. To achieve the objective legibility evaluation experiments were conducted to test the effects of different near vision (0.6, ${\geq}0.8$), gender, font type(thick gothic-type and fine gothic-type), thickness of font(plain and bold), and number of syllables(2 and 3 syllables) in the same age group of 20s. The results showed that legibility was different according to the visual acuity (p<0.05), and no other main effects showed statistically significant effects. The 'maximum illegible size' to read at least one word correctly in all the text conditions was 2 pt when the near vision was ${\geq}0.8$, and 2 pt or 3 pt when the near vision was 0.6. The 'minimum legible size' for 100% correct answer was 9 pt for the near vision of 0.6, and 5.3 pt for ${\geq}0.8$, respectively. Mean character size does not read any discomfort in 0.6 was 15.5 pt in both male and female but male was mean 8.5 pt, female was 10 pt in ${\geq}0.8$. Considering these experimental results, it was recommended that the 16 pt or larger characters should be used the important information such as 'Pesticides' or toxicity, and the minimum character size was 9 pt for the less important information.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.14 no.7
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• pp.425-430
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• 2016

This study is to improve the design of bus transfer information that can be substantially used. This study has been processed using the following steps. First, I tried to define the information design and way-finding information design. Secondly, I have researched several case studies, and considered solutions. Finally, I evaluated way-finding maps through pair-wise comparisons, and drew needs through an interview. As the result of this research, there were some problems in font size, improper space between letters and non-consistent information. To solve these problems, the information has to be clear using easy symbols to be well-recognized by citizens. Also, the font size needs to be decided by a calculation of minimum legible size of letters. Lastly, a value contrast between a background color and a letter color needs to be applied more than 70 percent for better visibility. The study is expected to be used as a reference which helps informational design to be developed.