• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.14 no.8
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• pp.3270-3294
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• 2020

Some things come easily to humans, one of them is the ability to navigate around. This capability of navigation suffers significantly in case of partial or complete blindness, restricting life activity. Advances in the technological landscape have given way to new solutions aiding navigation for the visually impaired. In this paper, we analyze the existing works and identify the challenges of path selection, context awareness, obstacle detection/identification and integration of visual and nonvisual information associated with real-time assisted mobility. In the process, we explore machine learning approaches for robotic path planning, multi constrained optimal path computation and sensor based wearable assistive devices for the visually impaired. It is observed that the solution to problem is complex and computationally intensive and significant effort is required towards the development of richer and comfortable paths for safe and smooth navigation of visually impaired people. We cannot overlook to explore more effective strategies of acquiring surrounding information towards autonomous mobility.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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• v.20 no.9
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• pp.97-103
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• 2021

In this paper, an omni wheel-based electric wheelchair is proposed that can achieve safe and convenient movement and can improve the convenience of living for mobility-impaired people who cannot move on their own. Generally, mobility-impaired people are afflicted with physical health issues such as pain and secondary body deformities because they often remain seated in wheelchairs for long periods of time. Hence, an electric wheelchair is required whose posture can be changed and whose size can be adjusted according to the user's body type. Such a wheelchair should also facilitate easy change of direction (even in a narrow space) for convenient movement. In this paper, an electric wheelchair featuring omni wheels is proposed that allows posture transformation and facilitates movement in a narrow space. It is believed that the proposed wheelchair can aid in enhancing the convenience of living for mobility-impaired people.

• Korean Institute of Interior Design Journal
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• no.28
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• pp.100-108
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• 2001

The purpose of this study is to develop recommendation of sign system and color codes in making the public interior environment more accessible for the visually impaired persons. The appropriate guidelines in designing the sign system and the color codes in the public interior environment can increase the accessibility, the mobility and the safety for the visually impaired persons including the increasing elderly. By selecting the effective sign system much more desirable results can be brought: Improvement of accessibility, mobility, increase of safety, work efficiency and the psychological stability. Sign system and the color is more important for the weak-sighted people than the normal-sighted in way finding and the orientation strategies. 53 visually impaired persons participated for this study, the answers of the questionaires by the weak-sighted persons are focused on in this research. The data, the needs of users is analysed on the basis of users-oriented. The result of this study can be considered as a basic direction of sign system design and color codes in our codes in our public environment for all people especially visually impaired persons.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.85-96
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• 2023

This study developed and evaluated a safe route guidance service for electric personal assistive mobility device used mainly by the mobility impaired people to improve their mobility. Thirteen underlying factors affecting the mobility of electric personal assistive mobility device have been derived through a survey with the mobility impaired people and employees in related organizations in Busan Metropolitan City. After assigning safety scores to individual factors and identifying the relevant factors along routes of interest with an object detection AI model, the safe route for electric personal assistive mobility device was provided through an optimal path-finding algorithm. As a result of comparing the general route of T-map and the recommended route of this study for the identical routes, the latter had relatively fewer obstacles and the gentler slope than the former, implicating that the recommended route is safer than the general one. As future works, it is necessary to enhance the function of a route guidance service based on the real-time location of users and to conduct spot investigations to evaluate and verify its social acceptability.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Fundamentals of Nursing
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.220-229
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• 2013

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to investigate activities-specific balance confidence and risk of fallings among rehabilitation patients with impaired of mobility, and to identify the influence of activities-specific balance confidence on their risk of fallings. Method: Data for 132 rehabilitation patients were collected between October June 20 and August 20, 2012 at nine hospitals in a metropolitan city. Data were analyzed using t-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficient and stepwise multiple regression with SPSS/WIN 20.0. Result: The mean score for rehabilitation patients' activities-specific balance confidence was 40.18 out of a possible range of 0-100 and the mean score for risk of fallings among rehabilitation patients was 31.10 within a possible range of 0-125. Significant factors affecting the risk of fallings among the rehabilitation patients were 'activity level', 'dementia', 'body mass index', 'anxiety', and 'presence of a caregiver', which together explained 34.7% of the variance. The most significantly factor influencing rehabilitation patients' risk of fallings was activities-specific balance confidence which explained 23.5% of the variance. Conclusion: The study results indicate that activities-specific balance confidence as well as physical factors should be considered for interventions to decrease risk of fallings in rehabilitation patients with impaired mobility.

• Korean Institute of Interior Design Journal
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• no.25
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• pp.119-129
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• 2000

The objective of this study is to evaluate the interior elements supporting the safety, mobility and accessibility for the visually impaired persons in the public, government, and other facilities. Ten facilities were analyzed with a checklist based on the architectural codes and the users needs. Also theses facilities were reviewed with mandatory items of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. It appeared that the arrangement of elements such as stair, elevator and restroom, the plan of circulation path and the signage of way-finding had more problems than the details of each element. In addition, institutional facilities for the blinds and trainstation provided easy accessibility, adaptability and mobility compared to the hospital and bus terminal. Suggestions were provided to solve the problem which were found.

• Journal of The Korea Institute of Healthcare Architecture
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.35-43
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• 2015

Purpose: A large number of the mobility impaired have increasingly used the railway station, so the application of UD(Universal Design) on urban railway station has been interested. However, the current criteria used in domestic areas have concerned about the effective administration of railway station facilities rather than the needs of he mobility impaired. Of diverse facilities in railway station, the platform is considered as an important space due to many transportation users' riding or transfer in railway stations. Therefore, this study aims to explore the detailed criteria in adapting ideas from UD to platform within railway station. Methods: This study explores the criteria by evaluating findings from previous studies. First, all criteria related to platform in domestic and foreign areas are taken together and analyzed, and appropriate criteria first are established. Based on these, the current situation of platform facilities in railway station is evaluated. Then, the detailed criteria applicable to railway station platform are concluded, by reviewing types of the mobility impaired and principles of UD. Result: Findings from this study are as follows. First, the current criteria applied to railway station platforms lack ideas of UD, while the criteria used in foreign countries adequately reflect the ideas of UD on railway station platforms; therefore, the better criteria applicable to platform facilities in domestic railway station are necessary. Second, standard criteria used in domestic areas with newly additional criteria suggest that platform facilities should be established according to those criteria. Taken together, the better platform facilities should be provided to railway users through the application of UD to railway station platforms. Implications: For the future users in railway station platforms, the additional research on criteria of UD as well as diverse types of spaces within railway stations should have been continued.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.457-471
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• 1995

This research was done to promote improvement of practical application of nursing diagnoses and to improve the quality of nursing. The subjects of this research were 156 second year students of C junior nursing college who were giving adult patient care. The nursing diagnoses of 312 reports were analyzed using NANDA. In these case reports only nursing diagnoses were considered, of which there were a total of 982. In the data analysis the 9H of the nursing students' nursing diagnoses matched with 105 NANDA nursing diagnoses, Of these, the most frequent diagnoses were pain(165, 17.48%), anxiety(101, 10.70%), alteration in nutrition(83, 8.79%) , sleep disturbance (67, 7.10%), in activity intolerance (67, 7.10%), ineffective breathing pattern(51,5.40%). The etiology for the students' nursing diagnoses were compared with NANDA's nursing diagnoses by frequency. The most frequent etiology for the nursing diagnoses of pain was a biological etiology(50, 31%), for anxiety, situation crisis(58, 57.43%), for alteration in nutrition, indigesion(23, 27.71%), for sleep disturbance, external etiology(25, 37.32%), for activity intolerance, immobile position(22, 32.84%), for ineffective breathing pattern, pain(35, 68.63%), and for ,impaired physical mobility, pain(31, 65.96%). The most frequent etiology for constipation was inadquate digestion of water and cellulose (16, 34.78%), for fluid volume felicity, loss of body fluid (21, 52.50%), for impaired skin integrity, external etilogy(16, 43.24%), for impaired physical mobility, pain(22, 62.86%) , for knowledge deficits, cognition disturbance(9, 27.27％), for ineffective air way clearance, secretion obstruction(14, 48.27%) , for impaired gas exchange, loss of transport ability of blood oxygen(9, 37.50%) , and for powerlessness, therapy environment (5, 22.73%). The number of nursing diagnoses by pattern was exchange(16), moving(6), feeling(4), choosing(4), relating(3), communication(1), perceiving(1), knowing(1), valuing(1).

• The Journal of the Institute of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.51-58
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• 2022

This paper proposes new measures to aid the uses of pubic transport buses by visually impaired people. Many visually impaired people have difficulty using public buses, but current guidance systems and braille blocks are not useful enough, according to a national survey(2017). In this paper, we develop a system with three functions that help to increase the bus accessibility and mobility of visually impaired people: (1)bus reservation using smart phone applications, (2)arrival notification, and (3)wireless bus stop button using Beacon. Experiments have confirmed that our system supports bus reservation, boarding and getting off the bus efficiently.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Surveying, Geodesy, Photogrammetry and Cartography
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.119-133
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• 2022

Due to the improvement of surveying, mapping and communication techniques, various apps for road direction guides and vehicle navigations have been developed. Although such a development has impacted on walking and driving, there is a limit to improving the daily convenience of the socially impaired people. This is mainly due to the fact that the software have been developed for normal pedestrians and drivers. Therefore, visually impaired people still have problems with the confusion of direction and/or non-provision of risk factors in walking. This study aimed to propose a scheme which constructs data for mobility-impaired or traffic-impaired people based on various geospatial information. The factors and components related to walking for the visually impaired are selected by geospatial data and a walking route guidance network that can be applied to a commercial software. As a result, it was confirmed that road direction guidance would be possible if additional contents, such as braille blocks (dotted/linear), sound signals, bus stops, and bollards are secured. In addition, an initial version of the application software was implemented based on the suggested data model and its usefulness was evaluated to a visually impaired person. To advance the stability of the service in walking for the visually impaired people, various geospatial data obtained by multiple institutes are necessary to be combined, and various sensors and voice technologies are required to be connected and utilized through ICT (Information and Communications Technologies) technology in near future.