• International Journal of Contents
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.8-13
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• 2010

Due to the expense of health care and the need to contain costs, many stroke patients are discharged from hospitals while still in an impaired condition. Using Tele-rehabilitation, these patients can receive rehabilitation services remotely. A pegboard is a conventional rehabilitation therapeutic device that integrates cognition, sensation and hand motor function. This study proposes a Tele-rehabilitation content with automated pegboard and shows its functional feasibility. The evaluation of the pegboard session was automated with RFID (radio frequency identification), and a 16-hole pegboard was rapid-prototyped. After a pegboard session is completed, the session result is uploaded to a server automatically for viewing on a web browser by a remote therapist. The therapist can also send messages to remote patients to encourage them or to manage the rehabilitation process.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.11 no.10
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• pp.3658-3665
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• 2010

As the population of elderly people and disabled people are increased, various demands for human welfare using robot system are raised. Especially autonomous rehabilitation system using robot could reduce the human effort while maintaining the its intrinsic efficacy. This study deals with mobile gait rehabilitation system which combined with BWS (Body Weight Support) for training of elderly and handicapped people who suffer the muscle force weakness of lower extremity. BWS which is designed by kinematic analysis of body lifting characteristics and walking guide system are integrated with main control system and wheeled platform. This mobile platform is operated by UCS (User Command System) and autonomous trajectory planning algorithm. Finally, through the EMG (Electromyography) signal measuring and its analysis for subject, performance and feasibility of developed system is verified.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.228-234
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• 2015

The balance ability significantly decreased in the elderly because of deterioration of the neural musculature regulatory mechanisms. Several studies have investigated methods of improving balance ability using real-time systems, but it is limited by the expensive test equipment and specialized resources. Recently, Kinect system based on depth data has been applied to address these limitations. Little information about accuracy/inaccuracy of Kinect system is, however, available, particular in motion analysis for evaluation of effectiveness in rehabilitation training. Therefore, the aim of the current study was to evaluate accuracy/inaccuracy of Kinect system in specific rotational movement for balance rehabilitation training. Six healthy male adults with no musculoskeletal disorder were selected to participate in the experiment. Movements of the participants were induced by controlling the base plane of the balance training equipment in directions of AP (anterior-posterior), ML (medial-lateral), right and left diagonal direction. The dynamic motions of the subjects were measured using two Kinect depth sensor systems and a three-dimensional motion capture system with eight infrared cameras for comparative evaluation. The results of the error rate for hip and knee joint alteration of Kinect system comparison with infrared camera based motion capture system occurred smaller values in the ML direction (Hip joint: 10.9~57.3%, Knee joint: 26.0~74.8%). Therefore, the accuracy of Kinect system for measuring balance rehabilitation traning could improve by using adapted algorithm which is based on hip joint movement in medial-lateral direction.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.16 no.10
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• pp.939-947
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• 2010

With the rising numbers of elderly and disabled people, the demand for welfare services using a robotic system and not involving human effort is likewise increasing. This study deals with a mobile-robot system combined with a BWS (Body Weight Support) system for gait rehabilitation. The BWS system is designed via the kinematic analysis of the robot's body-lifting characteristics and of the walking guide system that controls the total rehabilitation system integrated in the mobile robot. This mobile platform is operated by utilizing the AGV (Autonomous Guided Vehicle) driving algorithm. Especially, the method that integrates geometric path tracking and obstacle avoidance for a nonholonomic mobile robot is applied so that the system can be operated in an area where the elderly users are expected to be situated, such as in a public hospital or a rehabilitation center. The mobile robot follows the path by moving through the turning radius supplied by the pure-pursuit method which is one of the existing geometric path-tracking methods. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified through the real experiments those are conducted for path tracking with static- and dynamic-obstacle avoidance. Finally, through the EMG (Electromyography) signal measurement of the subject, the performance of the proposed system in a real operation condition is evaluated.

• Journal of Korea Multimedia Society
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.254-268
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• 2013

This paper presents an augmented reality (AR) based rehabilitation exercise system to enhance the motor function of the hands for the paretic/hemi-paretic patient. The existing rehabilitation systems rely on mechanical apparatus for palsy rehabilitation, but we aim to use the rehabilitation system at home with easy configuration and minimized equipment by the computer vision based approach. The proposed method evaluates the interaction status of the fingertip action by using the position and the contact of the fingertip markers. We obtain the 2D positions of the fingertip markers from a single camera, and then transform the 3D positions from the calibrated camera space by using an ARToolKit marker. We adopt simple geometric calculation by the conversion of the 2D interest points into the 3D interaction points for the simple interactive task in AR environment. Some experimental results show that the proposed method is practical and simply applicable to the applications with personal AR interaction.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.503-509
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• 2015

In this paper, we designed and tested an ankle joint mechanism for a gait rehabilitation robot. Gait rehabilitation programs are designed to improve the natural leg motion of patients who have lost their walking capabilities by accident or disease. Strengthening the muscles of the lower-limbs and stimulation of the nervous system corresponding to walking helps patients to walk again using gait assistive devices. It is an obvious requirement that the rehabilitation system's motion should be similar to and as natural as the normal gait. However, the system being used for gait rehabilitation does not pay much attention to ankle joints, which play an important role in correct walking as the motion of the ankle should reflect the movement of the center of gravity (COG) of the body. Consequently, we have designed an ankle mechanism that ensures the safety of the patient as well as efficient gait training. Also, even patients with low leg muscle strength are able to operate the ankle joint due to the direct-drive mechanism without a reducer. This safety feature prevents any possible adverse load on the human ankle. The additional degree of freedom for the roll motion achieves a gait pattern which is similar to the normal gait and with a greater degree of comfort.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.651-656
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• 2011

Although prosthetic training was received, most of amputees mainly depend on visual feedback to use prostheses, not on cutaneous and proprioceptive sensibility. Our objective of this study was to determine if there are changes in the somatosensory sensibility of amputees compared to non-amputees using multi-channel vibration stimulation system. One transradial amputees and ten non-amputees were involved. To investigate changes of residual somatosensory sensibility at stump, we set up custom-made vibration stimulation system including eight actuators (4 medial and 4 lateral) and GUI-based acquisition system. The results showed that there was similar pattern of subjective response at most of channels among group as stimulation increases. However, amputees' subjective response at channel 8 for 238Hz vibration was more sensitive than that of healthy persons. With respect to channels, response at channel 4 (medial) corresponding region to flexor carpi ulnaris for transradial amputees was most sensitive than other channels. In addition, sensitivity of four medial channels was on average about 0.5 scale than that of four lateral channels. Somatosensory sensibility was amputee, women, and men in sensibility order.

• Journal of Korean Medicine Rehabilitation
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.17-30
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• 2005

Objectives : This study was designed to evaluate the changes of autonomic nervous system by heart rate variability(HRV) test on the musculoskeletal pain patients treated with acupuncture on the Back-su points and the unfixed points, and untreated healthy adults. Methods : This clinical study have been carried out with 64 cases of musculoskeletal pain patients and 26 healthy adults. 35 patients were treated with acupunctureon on the Back-su points(Group I) and 26 patients were treated on the Unfixed points(GroupII), and two groups were tested by HRV at pre and post acupuncture treatment. 26 healthy adults(GroupIII) were tested twice by HRV without any stimulation. Results : In Group I, VAS was decresased $5.83{\pm}1.62$ to $5.17{\pm}1.89$ significantly(p<0.05) after acupuncture treatment, and LF/HF ratio was decreased significantly(p<0.05) as compared with healthy control Group. In GroupII, SDNN & RMSSD were increased singnificantly(p<0.05) as compared with other Groups. in Group I & II, MHRT was decreased significantly(p<0.05) as compared with healthy control Group. Conclusions : These results suggest that acupuncture treatment on the Back-su points was able to reduce the pain, suppress the sympathetic activities and enhance the parasympathetic activities in musculoskeletal patients.

• The Journal of Churna Manual Medicine for Spine and Nerves
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.19-31
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• 2020

Objectives This study was conducted to survey the trends of Korean medicine clinical research using radiological measurements of the musculoskeletal system. Methods We searched four domestic research databases (OASIS, NDSL, RISS, KISS) and three academic journals (Journal of Korean Medicine Rehabilitation, The Journal of Korea CHUNA Manual Medicine for Spine & Nerves, and Journal of Acupuncture Research). Selected studies were classified by publishing year, journal, the purpose of studies, and body region mainly researched in studies. Additionally, we analyzed the radiological measurements used in each body region. Results A total of 80 studies were selected. Most of the studies were published since2000. Most studies were published in the Journal of Korean Medicine Rehabilitation. The mainly researched body region was the lumbar spine. The main purpose of the studies was to analyze the characteristics of the disease. Conclusions Further research is needed about other different fields of Korean Medicine using X-ray on various body region and studies with purpose of analyzing radiological measurements need to be researched more.

• Therapeutic Science for Rehabilitation
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.51-62
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• 2019

Objective: To develop and verify the usability of a cognitive rehabilitation system with diverse cognitive functional levels based on tangible objects for the elderly population. Methods: A study was conducted to investigate the system's strengths and weaknesses by upgrading it with responses from two groups of 15 patients and 4 occupational therapists. After undergoing three forms of training - regarding executive function, memory, and concentration for a total of 20-30 min, the participants were asked to answer a structured questionnaire about contents of the three forms of training, hardware including the tablet PC functioning as a CPU and display media and tangible objects, and satisfaction of experiential usage of the system. Results: Both groups responded that the most interesting training area was executive function while the least interesting was concentration. Six participants reported that the size of the screen of the tablet PC was inappropriate, and five responded that the size of the tool was inappropriate. All therapists and 40% of the patients responded that they were satisfied with this system. Conclusion: This system's features include easy manipulation of tangible tools for performing training tasks, easy selection of and training in cognitive areas based on users' needs, and automatic adjustment of difficulty level based on users' performance. The training environment was designed to be similar to the natural environment by using tangible objects in both hands as input devices for the system, and the system was considered as an alternative to the lack of community cognitive rehabilitation specialists.