• International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.320-328
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• 2021

As the number of visually impaired people steadily increases, interest in independent walking is also increasing. However, there are various inconveniences in the independent walking of the visually impaired at present, reducing the quality of life of the visually impaired. The white cane, which is an existing walking aid for the visually impaired, has difficulty in recognizing upper obstacles and obstacles outside the effective distance. In addition, it is inconvenient to cross the street because the sound signal to help the visually impaired cross the crosswalk is lacking or damaged. These factors make it difficult for the visually impaired to walk independently. Therefore, we propose the design of an embedded system that provides traffic light recognition through object recognition technology, voice guidance using TTS, and upper obstacle recognition through ultrasonic sensors so that blind people can realize safe and high-quality independent walking.

• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.9-15
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• 2009

High temperature superconductor (HTS) coated conductors has high hysteretic magnetization loss which is an obstacle for the AC applications of coated conductors. We propose a method to reduce the magnetization loss of the coated conductor. It is the mechanical striation method by load variety using office knife. The magnetization loss measured in the mechanical striated YBCO coated conductor without copper layer was compared with the loss generated by perpendicularly exposed external magnetic filed. The reduction in magnetization loss due to the mechanical striation is clearly shown at higher field and was dependent on the striation number. The mechanical striation method was proven to have additional advantages of a low cost and high fabrication process.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.187-195
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• 2024

Light detection and ranging (LiDAR), a widely used sensor in mobile robots and autonomous vehicles, has its most important function as measuring the range of objects in three-dimensional space and generating point clouds. These point clouds consist of the coordinates of each reflection point and can be used for various tasks, such as obstacle detection and environment recognition. However, several processing steps are required, such as three-dimensional modeling, mesh generation, and rendering. Efficient data processing is crucial because LiDAR provides a large number of real-time measurements with high sampling frequencies. Despite the rapid development of controller computational power, simplifying the computational algorithm is still necessary. This paper presents a method for estimating the presence of curbs, humps, and ground tilt using range measurements from a single horizontal or vertical scan instead of point clouds. These features can be obtained by data segmentation based on linearization. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm was verified by experiments in various environments.

• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.1-17
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• 2001

Forming a part of "Cooperative Practical Study for the Modernization of the Management of National Forest", this study was conducted to provide overall ecological information for the natural regeneration of major tree species on the basis of community structural attributes in the deciduous forest ecosystem. Followings are summarized characteristics of the natural regeneration for the selected tree species. Betula costata : Although large number of seeds are dispersed by wind, they require mineral soils to germinate. Thick litter layer could be an obstacle to germinate. After germination, the seedling requires large amount of light for successful establishment. Acer mono : Characterized by high shade tolerance and weak drought resistance, the seedling should be overcasted with more than 50% of canopy coverage. High stand density should be maintained to produce good quality of timber. The potential of coppice may be high. Ulmus laciniata : Since this species needs high rate of troll moisture and light, around 60% of canopy coverage should be maintained to retain moisture and incoming light. The competition with other vegetation should be removed for the favor of successful seedling establishment. Fraxinus mandshurica : This species requires moist mineral soils to germinate. After germination, the seedling needs large amount of light and moisture for successful establishment. Site preparation should be applied to reduce competition with weedy vegetation. Fraxinus rhynchophylla : Interval of large seed crops may be highly varied. Thick litter layer could be an obstacle to germinate. Site preparation should be applied to reduce competition with weedy vegetation so as to achieve successful seedling establishment. Quercus mongolica : Including the difficulty of seed supply by the consumption, thick litter layer and mountain bamboo cover could be the obstacle to germinate. More than 50% of relative light intensity is necessary to achieve successful seedling establishment. Kalopanax pictus : Thick litter layer could be an obstacle to germinate. The seedling needs large amount of light and moisture for successful establishment. Abies holophylla : In spite of high shade tolerance, the growth rate in sapling stage may be extremely slow. Cornus controversa : Seeds (drups) are consumed and dispersed by animals, tending to be not sufficient in seed supply. This species requires large amount of light for successful germination and seedling establishment. Tilia amurensis : The difficulty of seed supply might be expected with low seed purity and double dormancy. Since thick litter layer could be an obstacle to germinate, the species requires moist mineral soils for successful germination. The potential of coppice may be extremely high.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.52 no.4
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• pp.334-338
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• 2012

Objective : We compared the survival time between patients with multiple gamma knife radiosurgery (GKRS) and patients with a single GKRS plus whole brain radiation therapy (WBRT), in patients with multiple metachronous brain metastases from lung cancer. Methods : From May 2006 to July 2010, we analyzed 31 patients out of 112 patients who showed multiple metachronous brain metastases. 20 out of 31 patients underwent multiple GKRS (group A) and 11 patients underwent a single GKRS plus WBRT (group B). We compared the survival time between group A and B. Kaplan-Meier method and Cox proportional hazards were used to analyze relationship between survival and 1) the number of lesions in each patient, 2) the average volume of lesions in each patient, 3) the number of repeated GKRS, and 4) the interval of development of new lesions, respectively. Results : Median survival time was 18 months (range 6-50 months) in group A and 6 months (range 3-18 months) in group B. Only the average volume of individual lesion (over 10 cc) was negatively related with survival time according to Kaplan-Meier method. Cox-proportional hazard ratio of each variable was 1.1559 for the number of lesions, 1.0005 for the average volume of lesions, 0.0894 for the numbers of repeated GKRS, and 0.5970 for the interval of development of new lesions. Conclusion : This study showed extended survival time in group A compared with group B. Our result supports that multiple GKRS is of value in extending the survival time in patients with multiple metachronous brain metastases, and that the number of the lesions and the frequency of development of new lesions are not an obstacle in treating patients with GKRS.

• 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.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.21 no.5 s.77
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• pp.103-111
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• 2006

The purpose of this study was to analyse the relationships between cognitive abilities and driving characteristics of elderly drivers. Driving characteristics of elderly and younger drivers who were driving a fixed base driving simulator vehicle were examined. Participants consisted of 12 drivers over age 65 (the 'older' group) and 12 drivers between the ages of 25 and 55 (the "younger" group). As indices of cognitive ability, critical flicker fusion frequency (CFF) tests and cognitive reaction tests were given before the driving task. CFF was also tested after the simulated driving task for both groups. Cognitive reaction tests, which were composed of speed estimation tests, multiple choice reaction tests and obstacle avoidance tests, were developed by the Korean Road Traffic Safety Authority in 2003. CFF values between the two groups exhibited significant differences both before and after the task, with a p-value less than 0.01 and a t-value of -3.01 before the test and a p-value less than 0.031 and a t-value of -2.35 after the test. Older drivers' CFF values were lower than those of the younger. However, there was no difference in older or younger driver CFF values before and after the task within the same group. Except for the multiple choice reaction test, there was no difference in cognitive reaction test results between the two groups. The elderly drivers made more errors though they did not differ from the younger drivers in reaction times. At the simulated driving task the reaction time of the elderly driver was longer than that of the younger; however, the driving speed of the elderly was lower and the number of collisions greater. There was a positive correlation (r=.496) between the number of errors in the multiple choice reaction test and the number of collisions in the driving task. Therefore, it was identified that critical attributes contributing to automobile crashes involving elderly drivers included cognitive difficulty in judging and responding to complex situations.

• Journal of Korea Multimedia Society
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.612-622
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• 2007

As compared with wired network environment, mobile VOD service in wireless network environment is difficult to guarantee the quality of VOD service due to the limitation of the system resources. Moreover, the wireless network has small bandwidth resources and short access range so that has limitations for providing the service to a large number of mobile clients. The limited battery capacity of a mobile device becomes an obstacle to mobile clients for enjoying VOD service for a long time. Therefore, these drawbacks should be considered in developing mobile VOD applications. This paper proposes a new technique for improving QoS of mobile VOD service by jointly use of broadcasting technique, which can provide VOD service to a large number of mobile clients simultaneously, and bursty communication technique, which can reduce the power consumption of a mobile device. With having these two techniques, streaming data are divided into segments, each of which is grouped into a particular packet and then transmitted at a time in the busty communication manner. In the performance evaluation, the power consumption on WNIC of a mobile device can be reduced by over 80%, and the initial service delay can be reduced in proportion to the number of channels compared with the existing staggered broadcasting technique.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.38C no.12
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• pp.1207-1215
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• 2013

This paper proposes the location estimation techniques of distributed targets with the multi-sensor data perceived through IR sensors of the military robots in consideration of obstacles. In order to match up targets with measured azimuths, to add to the depth-first search (DFS) algorithms in free-obstacle environment, we suggest the expanded DFS (EDS) algorithm including bypass path search, partial path search, middle level ending, and the supplementation of decision metric. After matching up targets with azimuths, we estimate the coordinate of each target by obtaining the intersection point of the azimuths with the least square error (LSE) algorithm. The experimental results show the error rate of estimated location, mean number of calculating nodes, and mean distance between real coordinates and estimated coordinates of the proposed algorithms.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.29 no.12
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• pp.1321-1330
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• 2012

This paper describes an advanced formation algorithm of clustered multiple robots for their navigation using flexible formation method for collision avoidance under static environment like narrow corridors. A group of clustered multiple robots finds the lowest path cost for navigation by changing its formation. The suggested flexible method of formation transforms the basic group of mobile robots into specific form when it is confronted by particular geographic feature. In addition, the proposed method suggests to choose a leader robot of the group for the obstacle avoidance and path planning. Firstly, the group of robots forms basic shapes such as triangle, square, pentagon and etc. depending on number of robots. Secondly, the closest to the target location robot is chosen as a leader robot. The chosen leader robot uses $A^*$ for reaching the goal location. The proposed approach improves autonomous formation characteristics and performance of all system.