• 한국실내디자인학회논문집
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• 제19권2호
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• pp.3-14
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• 2010

As the seniors and the disabled has increased, the demand for cultural centers has also increased in many local areas. This means that the local cultural centers designed from the viewpoint of universal design are needed, so that to be used by everyone without any difficulties. This study examined the applicability of universal design principles to the public service areas of the local cultural centers. The subject cultural centers were three local ones which had seating capacity of more than 1,000 and opened after the year of 2,000 in Gyungnam. The spatial scopes of the study were six public service areas of the local cultural centers : entrance area, corridor and pathway, stair, ramp, elevator, and rest room. The total 65 items for evaluating the applicability of universal design were selected and examined for six areas. On the whole, accessibility, such as wide pathway and flat floor was good. However, the following improvements were needed. 1) Handrails and rounded corner were needed on walls. 2) Consideration of the visually impaired like as braille sign was needed. 3) The handrails on ramp should be installed for usability. 4) The automatic door would be more useful to the physically disabled users. 5) Wider space and familiar handrail design and color were needed in the rest rooms for the handicapped.

• 한국산업정보학회논문지
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• 제22권5호
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• pp.25-30
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• 2017

본 논문에서는 초음파 센서를 이용한 저비용 장애물 인식 장치를 개발한다. 개발된 장애물 인식 장치는 시각 장애인들이 보행시 장애물을 인식하는 데 쓰일 수 있도록 한다. 장애물의 인식 여부는 내장된 모터의 진동을 통하여 시각 장애인들에게 인식이 가능하도록 한다. 뿐만 아니라 장애물의 거리에 따라 대상자에게 장애물 인식 유무에 대해 시간차를 두고 고지하여 대상자가 장애물에 대해 적절한 반응을 수행할 수 있도록 한다. 마이크로 컨트롤러 제어를 통한 펄스 신호를 이용하여 장애물에 대한 반사파를 통해 장애물의 존재 유무와 거리를 탐지하며 펄스 신호를 이용한 반사파 탐지는 반복 수행을 통해 인식률을 높인다. 개발된 장애물 인식 장치는 $30^{\circ}$ 내외의 전방 탐지각을 나타내고, 2cm-30cm의 탐지거리를 가지며 일상적인 보행 조건에서 동작이 가능함을 실험을 통해 입증하였다.

• 대한건축학회논문집:계획계
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• 제35권1호
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• pp.117-125
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• 2019

The purpose of this study is to examine urban built environments associated with the walking behavior in order to identify the problem of urban infrastructure from the perspective of Universal design theory. Using the walkability criteria developed based on the findings of previous studies on Universal design theory and walking environment, the urban built environments in old town area of Seoul were evaluated. The results of the evaluation indicated that the pedestrian infrastructure in the study area had several shortcomings to improve in order to provide walking-friendly environments. First, the pedestrian infrastructure for visually impaired people were severely limited. Second, walking traffics in large portion of the street networks were interrupted by a variety of obstacles such as parked cars, signboards, and illegal street shops. Third, there were certain areas where the quality of pavement was not properly managed. In summary, this study provides an empirical data to understand the current situation of pedestrian infrastructure in the urban areas. Improvement of pedestrian infrastructure is needed to address the issues related to the mobility of the disabled people. It is also recommended to construct the GIS data on walking environment in order to develop and mange a long-term public investment plan for walking-friendly urban environments.

• 한국도로학회논문집
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• 제15권6호
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• pp.17-23
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• 2013

PURPOSES : This study aimed to measure the skid resistance of the sidewalk in order to find out the relationship between different surface types and skid resistance. By using British Pendulum Tester, skid resistance of sidewalk was measured in a wet after snow-melt, sludgy, and snowy conditions. METHODS : The skid resistance was measured on surfaces including Concrete Interlocking Block Paving, Colour Asphalt Pavement, Granite Block Paving, Manhole, and Tactile Paving for Visually Impaired. Five trials at each measurement were made, and the average and standard deviation were derived. RESULTS : The skid resistance measured in wet after snow-melt, sludgy, and snowy conditions for the various surface types are summarized and compared. Reduction rates of skid resistance of sludgy and snowy against wet after snow-melt are also analysed. The skid resistance variation between measurement points which mimic pedestrian route in study site are analysed to check out the consistency of the skid resistance along the sidewalk. CONCLUSIONS : The study concluded that the skid resistance of sidewalk surfaces varied depending on the surface types and weather conditions. Secondly, reduction rates of skid resistance according to weather changes are varied depending on the surface types, Thirdly, consistency of skid resistance along the pedestrian route is hardly acquired in the study site at least. So, future study on the consistency evaluation for skid resistance along sidewalk is strongly recommended.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• 제17권9호
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• pp.2377-2398
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• 2023

In our daily lives, we engage in a variety of tasks that rely on our senses, such as seeing. Blindness is the absence of the sense of vision. According to the World Health Organization, 2.2 billion people worldwide suffer from various forms of vision impairment. Unfortunately, blind people face a variety of indoor and outdoor challenges on a daily basis, limiting their mobility and preventing them from engaging in other activities. Blind people are very vulnerable to a variety of hazards, including falls. Various barriers, such as stairs, can cause a fall. The Internet of Things (IoT) is used to track falls and send a warning message to the blind caretakers. One of the gaps in the previous works is that they were unable to differentiate between falls true and false. Treating false falls as true falls results in many false alarms being sent to the blind caretakers and thus, they may reject the IoT system. As a means of bridging this chasm, this paper proposes an intelligent shoe that is able to precisely distinguish between false and true falls based on three sensors, namely, the load scale sensor, the light sensor, and the Flex sensor. The proposed IoT system is tested in an indoor environment for various scenarios of falls using four models of machine learning. The results from our system showed an accuracy of 0.96%. Compared to the state-of-the-art, our system is simpler and more accurate since it avoids sending false alarms to the blind caretakers.

• 한국전자통신학회논문지
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• 제12권4호
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• pp.691-700
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• 2017

본 논문은 시각 장애인들을 위해 영상처리 기반의 자동 점자 변환기의 설계 및 구현에 관한 내용을 기술한다. 영상처리 기반의 변환 알고리즘은 웹캠으로 획득한 입력 영상을 이진 영상화 한 다음, 문자 영역을 라벨링 처리하여 저장되어 있는 문자 패턴 영상과 상호 상관도를 계산하여 해당되는 점자로 변환한다. 컴퓨터 시뮬레이션을 통해 제안한 알고리즘을 모의 실험한 결과, A5 용지에 인쇄된 숫자와 알파벳에 대하여 각각 95%, 91% 변환 성공률을 보여 주었고, 아두이노를 이용하여 서보모터로 구현한 시제품 시험을 통해 89% 변환 성능을 확인함으로서 구현된 자동 점자 변환기의 실용화 가능성을 확인하였다.

• 한국멀티미디어학회논문지
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• 제17권8호
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• pp.1025-1032
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• 2014

Until now, there were few supports on reading the mathematical expressions except text based expressions, so it is important to provide the reading of the mathematical expressions. Also, there are various of obstacles for people who are not visually impaired when reading the mathematical expressions such as the situation of presbyopia, reading the mathematical expressions in the vehicles, and so on. Therefore, supports for people to read mathematical expressions in various situations are needed. In the previous research, the main goal was to transform the mathematical expressions into Korean text based on Content MathML. In this paper, we expanded the range of the research from a reading disabilities to people who are not reading disabilities. We tested appropriacy of the rules we made to convert the MathML based expressions into speech and defined 3 math-to-speech rules in korean based on levels. We implemented the mathematical expressions by using 3 math-to-speech rules. We took comprehension test to find out whether our math to speech rules are well-defined or not.

• 한국조경학회지
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• 제23권4호
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• pp.81-96
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• 1996

The idea I set my thesis upon was to develop a methodology for the visually impaired to perceive an environment through their other senses. Since the Blind perceive spatial relationships by combined association of their other senses, it was essential to create a setting where their senses can be amplified. Thus this garden was designed to accommodate two or more of blind person's senses at once to provide more of '3-D' spatial relationship. The main goals of this thesis are, first, to create a place where the Blind can enjoy and nurture their own specific interests. Second, to reveal the nature in its allowing individual analysis and interpretation of a garden. Third, to move away from the prejudice of gardens for the Blind being made of only touching and smelling. To achieve these goals, the most important task was to establish a sense of space. In order to do so, five principles were used; Perspective, Enclosure, Light/Shade, Form, and Environment. After all, the garden for the Blind does not proclaim its purpose in loud terms nor in obvious manner. It should attempt to provide joy, serenity, and activity; a freedom to choose, recognize and analyze nuances of garden, the rhythm of enclosure and openness to experience variety, also to delight in subtle changes and to just imagine.

• 제어로봇시스템학회논문지
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• 제10권11호
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• pp.961-970
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• 2004

Tactile sensation is one of the most important sensory functions along with the auditory sensation for the visually impaired since it replaces the visual one of the persons with sight. In this paper, we present a tactile display device as a dynamic Braille display that is the unique tool f3r exchanging information among them. The tactile cell of the Braille display proposed is based on the dielectric elastomer, which is one of the electroactive polymers. It has advantageous features over the existing ones with respect to intrinsic softness, ease of fabrication, cost effectiveness and miniaturization. We introduce a new idea for actuation as well as additional considerations such as the driving circuit that makes it possible to drive multiple tactile cells in a high speed. Also, we describe the actuating mechanism of the Braille pin in details capable of realizing the enhanced spatial density of the tactile cells. Finally, results of psychophysical experiments are given to evaluate its effectiveness.

• Design & Manufacturing
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• 제6권2호
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• pp.59-63
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• 2012

In various industries, tactile recognition has been one of the important ways in displaying information because peoples like to touch and feel. Especially, how much the tactile information is efficiently recognizable is crucial for visually impaired persons in their daily lifes. However, existing design guidelines are insufficient to lead good tactile recognition. In this study, an experiment was performed to investigate proper tactile shapes (relievo / intaglio vs. filled / unfilled), sizes and depths for efficient tactile recognition. Moreover, this study scrutinized whether the recognition speed or error was varied depending on the type of displayed symbols (open vs. closed types) in tactile. The experimental results revealed that the 'relieve-filled' shape type was more rapidly recognizable than the other shapes, and the 'closed' type symbols (e.g., ${\square }$. ${\bigcirc}$) were more robustly recognizable than the 'open' type symbols (e.g, +, ^). Several design guidelines were presented based on the results. These guidelines can be applied to the design of tactile buttons in the devices that users should control them without visual attention, such as car steering wheels or MP3 players.