• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.281-292
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• 2017

Objective: This study aims to identify important physical design variables in designing a necklace type wearable device, and to present design guidelines to maximize comfort that a user feels upon wearing the device. Background: Interests in fitness culture and personal health are on the rise recently. In such a situation, demand for necklace type wearable devices is projected to increase a lot, as the devices enable users to use their hands freely and to enjoy various contents through connection with mobile devices. However, the necklace type wearable device's comfort was assessed to have the lowest comfort in a running situation, where human body moves up and down and left and right more than other devices wearable on other human body parts. Therefore, the usability of a necklace type wearable device was low. In this regard, studies on identification of the variables affecting user comfort upon wearing a necklace type wearable device and on physical design direction maximizing comfort and usability are needed. Method: A pretest and a main test were carried out to draw the direction of necklace type wearable device design. In the pretest, wearing evaluation on the diverse types of devices released in the market was conducted to draw physical design variables of the devices affecting comfort. Furthermore, variables significantly affecting the comfort of a device were selected through an analysis of variance (ANOVA). In the main test, anthropometry was performed, and information on anthropometric items corresponding to the design variables selected in the pretest was acquired. Based on the pretest results and the anthropometric information in the main test, the present study produced design guidelines maximizing the comfort of a necklace type wearable device with regard to major design variables upon dynamic tasks. Results: According to the pretest results, the variables having effects on comfort were the angle of side points, width, and height. Due to interactions between variables, those need to be simultaneously considered upon designing a device. Upon dynamic tasks, the angle of side points and width of a device was designed to be smaller than mean angle of the trapezius muscle and neck width, and thus attachment to human body was high. As height was designed to be larger than mean neck front and rear point width, comfort was higher due to feeling of stability. Conclusion: Because user sensitivity to comfort was high at human body's inflection points, a device needs to be designed for users not to feel high pressure on specific body parts with the device fitting human body shape well. A design considering user's situation is also required in further studies.

• Convergence Security Journal
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.63-68
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• 2016

This study examined the current state of fitness IT which are commercially available, and proposed the prospect and promoting plans for fitness IT. Latest wearable smart market has been reorganized into smart watch market and fitness tracker market. Fitness trackers which are typical devices of fitness IT technology has developed various types of such as watch, band, clothes, glasses, and lens. Until now, the most popular type of fitness tracker are watch and band including clip, necklace, hair band etc.. Also Apple and Google referred to as the two major axes of mobile platform has provided a health-related platform such as "Healthkit" and "Google Fit" for preoccupying the fitness business. The view of the fitness IT has seen a continuous growth trend considering smaller and lighter of fitness-related wearable device. To continuous growth and promote of fitness IT, it is expected to require mash-up a variety of fitness applications and services, ensuring the convenience of user experience, design and resonable price.

• Healthcare Informatics Research
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.387-393
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• 2018

Objectives: This paper describes an experience of implementing seamless service trials online and offline by adopting Internet of Things (IoT) technology based on near-field communication (NFC) tags and Bluetooth low-energy (BLE) beacons. The services were provided for both patients and health professionals. Methods: The pilot services were implemented to enhance healthcare service quality, improve patient safety, and provide an effective business process to health professionals in a tertiary hospital in Seoul, Korea. The services to enhance healthcare service quality include healing tours, cancer information/education, psychological assessments, indoor navigation, and exercise volume checking. The services to improve patient safety are monitoring of high-risk inpatients and delivery of real-time health information in emergency situations. In addition, the services to provide an effective business process to health professionals include surveys and web services for patient management. Results: Considering the sustainability of the pilot services, we decided to pause navigation and patient monitoring services until the interference problem could be completely resolved because beacon signal interference significantly influences the quality of services. On the other hand, we had to continue to provide new wearable beacons to high-risk patients because of hygiene issues, so the cost increased over time and was much higher than expected. Conclusions: To make the smart connected hospital services sustainable, technical feasibility (e.g., beacon signal interference), economic feasibility (e.g., continuous provision of new necklace beacons), and organizational commitment and support (e.g., renewal of new alternative medical devices and infrastructure) are required.