• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.488-498
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• 2010

This study was intended to develop a multi-purpose, multi-functional design for safety vest to enhance the safety and user's availability. With a limited scope to LED-applied safety vest, this study contemplates on the problems of safety vest on the market and directions for design development with a view to develop its prototype. This is a significant study because it has been conducted concerning a prototype, a cut above the study method of constructing a basic theory. For study method, theoretic considerations on LED and safety vest are followed by case study for LED-applied safety vest currently on the market to draw out problems. Then, solutions for problems with LED safety vest will be found, while planning for a design direction in consideration of safety, functionality and beauty. Scope of study was limited to cases of LED safety vests currently on sale online and offline, excluding cases of common-form luminosity such as HB luminous vest without LED. Accordingly, results of study will help develop the prototype for LED safety vest with an increase of the wearer's safety, and be used as a basic data for developing high-value-added fashion prodcts to meet his aesthetic sense and functionality. This study has limitations. Restricted scope for LED-applied safety vest should be extended to an outdoor wear in follow-up research for the foundation of higher value added.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.219-223
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• 2019

Background: Ice cooling vests can cause tissue damage and have no flexibility. Therefore, these two undesirable properties of ice cooling vest were optimized, and the present study was aimed to compare the impact of the optimized ice cooling vest and a commercial paraffin cooling vest on physiological and perceptual strain under controlled conditions. Methods: For optimizing, hydrogel was used to increase the flexibility and a layer of the ethylene vinyl acetate foam was placed into the inside layer of packs to prevent tissue damage. Then, 15 men with an optimized ice cooling vest, with a commercial paraffin cooling vest, and without a cooling vest performed tests including exercise on a treadmill (speed of 2.8 km/hr and slope of %0) under hot ($40^{\circ}C$) and dry (40 %) condition for 60 min. The physiological strain index and skin temperature were measured every 5 and 15 minutes, respectively. The heat strain score index and perceptual strain index were also assessed every 15 minutes. Results: The mean values of the physiological and perceptual indices differed significantly between exercise with and without cooling vests (P < 0.05). However, the difference of the mean values of the indices except the value of the skin temperature during the exercises with the commercial paraffin cooling vest and the optimized ice cooling vest was not significant (P > 0.05). Conclusions: The optimized ice cooling vest was as effective as the commercial paraffin cooling vest to control the thermal strain. However, ice has a greater latent heat and less production cost.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.863-873
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• 2023

This research explores the efficacy of safety vest colors at construction sites to enhance worker safety. Utilizing the Munsell color system and the Korean Standard Color Analysis program(KSCA), the study developed a prototype safety vest tailored to specific types of construction work. A safety vest with a color contrasting the site's environment significantly improves worker visibility and intuitiveness in identification, potentially reducing safety incidents. The study determined the optimal color specifications(hue, value, chroma) for safety vests in various construction roles, such as 10GY, 8, 8 for rebar placement, 8.75B, 7, 8 for Euroform, 3.75B, 2, 4 for Gangform, and 6.25BG, 5, 10 for steel erection. Feedback from construction experts on these prototypes, particularly regarding the safety vests for rebar placement and steel framework, was overwhelmingly positive(90% approval). Consequently, the proposed safety vest color scheme is deemed highly effective.

• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.125-136
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• 2018

This study intended to develop a motorcycle safe vest that can be prepared against accidents by mounting a smart module (with built-in sensor) on the safe vest in order to emphasize safety among functional aspects of the motorcycle clothing. The research method investigated professional books, prior research, and Internet data to examine the characteristics of motorcycle wear and the theoretical examination of smart wear, and analyzed the functional characteristics of the design by reviewing smart jacket and vest design cases for motorcycles currently on the market. As a results of study an interface device sensor, which contains a sensor with IMU(Intertial Measurement Unit) and CPU(Central Processing Unit), was inserted into a motorcycle top in order to draw attention to the safety of motorcycle riders. The IMU sensor attached to the vest detected the tilting motion of the rider to either left or right side to obtain data on left or right direction, sudden stop, and so forth and displayed left or right turn signal and sudden stop sign on the backplate (back) through the LED module. As for charging the device to operate LEDs, a generator, which is designed to convert the heat energy in the exhaust into electric energy, was used to efficiently self-produce the power required to operate LEDs of the top while riding.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.537-542
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• 2020

Background: Personal protective equipment (PPE) has been designed in such a way to reduce accident rates. Unfortunately, existing PPE is rather ineffective as it is not able to provide warning signals when hazard is around. The integration of intelligent systems is envisaged to increase the efficiency of existing PPE. Methods: This project designed a safety vest incorporated with metal detectors which can provide immediate warning to the field workers when there is metal hazard around. This product has greater freedom of design via smart manufacturing as it involves the assembly of few commercially available parts into a single entity. Briefly, the metal detector is a do it yourself (DIY) kit, and the safety vest is purchasable from any local market. The DIY kit was connected to a copper coil and being sewed into the safety vest. Results: The metal detector induces beeping sound when there is metal hazard around. A total of 121 engineering students were introduced to the prototype before being requested to answer a survey associated with the design. Respondents have rated >3.00/5.00 for the design simplicity, ease of usage, and light weight. Meanwhile, respondents suggested that the design should be further improved by increasing the metal detection range. Conclusion: It is envisaged that the introduction of this smart safety vest will allow the workers to carry out their duties securely by reducing the accident rates. Particularly, such design is expected to reduce workplace accident especially during night time at construction sites where the visibility is low.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.25-38
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• 2021

The aim of this study is to protect workers and pedestrians from accidents at night or bad weather by attaching optical fiber to existing safety clothing that is made only with fluorescent fabrics and retroreflective materials. A safety vest was designed and manufactured by applying optical fiber, and energy-harvesting technology was developed. The safety vest was designed to emit light using the automatic flashing of optical fibers attached to the film, and an energy harvester was manufactured and attached to drive the light emission of the optical fiber more continuously. As a result, first, the vest wearer' body was recognized from a distance through the optical fiber and retroreflection, which helped prevent accidents. Thus, this concept helps in saving lives by preventing accidents during night-time work on the roadside or activities of rescue crew and sports activities, or by quickly finding the point of an accident with a signal that changes the optical fiber light emission. Second, to use the wasted energy, a piezoelectric-element power generation system was developed and the piezoelectric-harvesting device was mounted. Potentially, energy was efficiently produced by activating the effective charging amount of the battery part and charging it auxiliary. In the existing safety vest, detecting the person wearing the vest is almost impossible in the absence of ambient light. However, in this study, the wearer could be found within 100 m by the light emission from the safety vest even with no ambient light. Therefore, in this study, we will help in preventing and reducing accidents by developing smart safety clothing using optical fiber and energy harvester attached to save lives.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.834-840
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• 2013

This study aims to suggest practical considerations for designing protective clothing with increased visibility that will have higher user acceptance by law enforcement officers. Light-emitting diode(LED) patrol vests were visually and structurally assessed, and 125 police officers' responses from surveys about user acceptance of the vest were analyzed. The current LED patrol vest was designed for enhanced safety of police officers by increasing visibility in the dark. However, the user acceptance rate of the LED patrol vest indicates low use of and low satisfaction with the vest despite its enhanced safety features. In particular, differences in materials, design, functionality of the pockets and size of the vest depending on the hours worked, were statistically significant. The police officers' responses suggest areas of improvement in design, materials, ease of movement, size and functionality. Key issues include 'tactile discomfort'; 'impeded vision from the glare of the LED'; 'frequent malfunctions of the LED'; 'impossible repair of the broken LED units'; 'no user feedback'; 'inconvenient to replace batteries'; 'brittle materials' and 'unpleasing look'. To increase user acceptance, designer should incorporate context-awareness, a convenient user interface, a modular design approach, first responders' self-image as public servants in relation to their aesthetic perspectives of their uniforms, and scientific evaluation of the effectiveness of the intended functions of the clothing. Suggested implications for designing the LED patrol vest can be applied to designing other functional/protective clothing for intended end users with special needs.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.241-245
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• 2008

The characteristics of temperature profile around human body with heating life vest at sea were investigated in this paper. Especially, the temperature profile of human body was numerically calculated by finite difference method with Mathcad. The main parameters were seasonal mean sea water temperature, heating amount and heating duration time of heating life vest. In this paper, the boundary layer was composed by the difference matters, and the thermal conductivity was calculated with an adjacent cells using thermal resistance method. It was clarified that the body temperature was kept highly and the risk of death from hypothermia was reduced by wearing heating life vest.

• Journal of Advanced Information Technology and Convergence
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.85-97
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• 2020

As a solution to the rapid urbanization problem, interest in and use of personal mobility devices such as bicycles and electric kickboards are increasing, and accidents are also rising every year. In this study, a smart vest to prevent traffic accidents and promote safe driving of personal mobility users was designed and implemented. Unlike the existing products on the market that indicate directions using buttons, the smart vest designed and implemented in this study indicates the moving direction by shaking a bracelet and displays the direction by LEDs on the vest. Therefore, this product was designed and implemented to be safer and differentiated from other existing products.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.471-478
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• 2022

In roadside workplaces, more attention should be paid to the safety of workers. The roadside workers underestimate the effect of the brightness of their clothes and judge that drivers will recognize them easily, and the drivers misjudge that the roadside workers are far away and that the vehicle can be stopped in sufficient time. Therefore, customized safety education reflecting this and wearing work clothes with certified visibility functions are required. In Korea, it is not compulsory for roadside workers and vehicle guide attendants to wear work clothes with a visibility function. In this study, the distance ahead perceived by drivers was measured using manikins wearing certified and non-certified reflective safety vests. The perception distance of the non-certified reflective safety vest was 1.4 times longer than that of the certified reflective safety vest, thus confirming the importance of wearing a certified reflective safety vest. To prevent roadside workers from suffering traffic accidents, we propose the enactment of a law that makes it mandatory for them to wear high-visibility safety clothing. Specifically, Article 32 of the Enforcement Regulation of the Road Traffic Act should include high-visibility safety clothing in life protection equipment, and additionally, to prevent secondary accidents, we propose the enactment of a law requiring the installation and wearing of certified reflective safety vests in vehicles.