• Journal of Korean Physical Therapy Science
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.15-25
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• 2006

The purpose of this study was to investigate effects of different chair type (with backrest chair and without backrest chair) and pelvic position (anterior pelvic tilting and posterior pelvic tilting) on three abdominal muscles (upper rectus abdominis, external oblique, internal oblique) and back extensor activation during lower extremity exercise. The four different conditions during bilateral knee extension exercise were: (1) leaning on backrest chair with anterior pelvic tilting, (2) leaning on backrest chair with posterior pelvic tilting, (3) anterior pelvic tilting without backrest chair, and (4) posterior pelvic tilting without backrest chair. Fifteen healthy male subjects with no history of neuromusculoskeletal disease voluntarily participated in this study. Electromyography (EMG) was used to collect muscle activation data, and muscle activation data was expressed as a percentage of maximal voluntary isometric contraction (%MVIC). One-way repeated analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to determine the statistical significance, and Bonferroni comparison was used as a post hoc test. The results of this study were the following: (1) Erector spinae activation was significantly lower in posterior pelvic tilting without backrest compared with that in leaning on backrest chair with anterior pelvic tilting. (2) Upper rectus abdominis activation was significantly lower than erector spinae in all four different chair type and pelvic tilting conditions.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.155-165
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• 2014

Objective: The aim of this study is to develop an office chair enabling to keep working at reclined sitting posture. Background: Sedentary workers are supposed to change the posture frequently during long hours of sitting. A reclined sitting position has been recommended to reduce disc pressure. But slumped sitting posture caused by the buttock sliding forward without any adjustment of back reclining is commonly observed. The worker seems to have tendency to change the sitting posture maintaining working condition. We assumed the reason to be their hands movement away from the working space when tilting backward. Method: Slide mechanism allowing seat to move forward was designed to maintain the hand position in working space during reclining. A prototype was manufactured and tilting motion was analyzed using motion capture system. Four experiment chairs were tested including the manufactured prototype chair and three other commercial chairs. Results: A backward movements of the hand position were 13.0mm, 101.7mm, 156.1mm and 139.3mm at the prototype chair, compared to chair B, chair C and chair D, respectively. And the movement was remarkably small at the prototype chair. Conclusion: The developed seat sliding chair allows back tilting maintaining hand position at working space. We expect the user tilting back more often than normal tilting chair during seated work. But further investigation is required to figure out the effectiveness of the developed chair using prolonged working hours. Application: The developed office chair directly affects commercialization.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.285-286
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• 2009

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.226-232
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• 2015

The aging of Korea is rapidly advancing in an unprecedented rate in the world. Indoor and outdoor safety accidents involving the elderly frequently occur, with elderly population increasing. Because the physical strength of elderly is decreased, it is necessary to develop devices that aid the everyday life of the elderly to prevent safety accidents. Among many activities, the motions of standing from and sitting on a chair require much physical strength from particular body parts, which causes an overload for particular body parts. To the elderly the repeating motion of standing from and sitting down on a chair is burdensome, because they do not have enough physical strength compare to young persons. As a result the elderly could be injured or falling during standing or sitting. Therefore, the development of a lift chair that considers the problems mentioned above is necessary to prevent the safety accidents of the elderly. The study designed a non-motorized lift chair that comfortably aids the standing and sitting down motion for the use of the elderly by reflecting the anthropometric data of the Korean elderly over 65 years old. Also the design was implemented to smoothly aid the standing motion by considering the knee angle of the elderly when standing. Because the regained strength to stand from a chair is depend on the knee angle. Unlike existing lift devices, this device utilizes a tilting mechanism that does not use electric power so that the product could be composed inexpensively than existing chairs released in the market.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2010.05a
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• pp.1383-1384
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• 2010

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.357-363
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• 2011

Objective: The aim of this study is to set the design direction of the lift chair's tilting seat for development. Background: Great attention has been shown to the development of senior friendly product, because of increasing elderly population rapidly in Korea. Therefore, we need to study on sit-to-stand(STS) motion of elderly systematically for developing lift chair that is one of senior friendly products. Method: In this study, we analyzed joint moment(knee, hip) and muscle activity (Erector spinae, Rectus femoris, Vastus lateralis) on STS motion of elderly(female, 60~70: 7) and young people(female, 20~30: 7) using 3 dimension motion capture camera, force plate, wireless EMG. Results: The results of muscle activity showed a similar trend but the results of joint moment were a lot of differences between the young and the elderly. Conclusion: The results of knee joint moment suggest the angle(10~30deg)-adjustable seat that can be better than to find the optimal seat's angle. Application: The method and results of this study are expected to develop senior friendly product and verification as well as be available to various application.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.108-114
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• 2018

One of the most performed action in daily life is standing up from sitting position. As the population of the world is aging at the high rates, people may face problems with reduced muscle strength as well as psychological changes. This can lead elderly people having difficulties with standing up from chair. Now, with the aging trend worldwide, products are being developed that can support the lives of the elderly. This study examines the distribution of hip pressure in relation to the seating positions of the standing assistance seats under development to prevent standing up accidents in older adults. The currently developing standing assistant chair designed to tilt to a maximum angle of 25 degrees. At over $25^{\circ}$, design considers that older people are at risk of thrown back out of that force and that the forces exerted on their arms and legs can be a significant burden to older people. By considering danger of higher than $25^{\circ}$ for older people which is experimented in the basis of static capturing approach in previous papers, it is experimented people with age group of 20~60 on $0^{\circ}$ to $25^{\circ}$ tilting angle on the basis of dynamic capturing method in order to pick convenient angle of inclination. Moreover, tried to find the optimum angle by comparing the hip pressure distribution when seated at the edge of the seat and at the center of the seat with the pressure distribution sensor.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.151-165
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• 2015

Objective: This study aims to develop and scientifically investigate the efficacy of the Spine S-curve Reactive Backrest that responds to the spine curvature of the user when seated, and maintains and enhances the natural S-curve of the lower back, thereby helping to relieve fatigue, correct posture and prevent spine deformities. Background: The focus of current development, design guidelines and/or standards for office chairs is mainly placed on the chair's dimensions, incline angle, adjusting features and lumbar support. Research and development was called for developing a chair backrest that maintains and improves the S-curve of the full spine. Method: The Spine S-curve Reactive Backrest was ergonomically designed to maintain correct posture and enhance user comfort. When leaned on, the backrest responds to the user's spine line and the whole lower back sits closely against the backrest, thereby aligning the user's lower back and backrest as one to maintain and improve the natural S-curve formation of the spine. In order to evaluate the efficacy of the newly designed chair (new design) and the comparison target (chair), five male college students of standard body type with normal spine curvature were selected as test subjects, and a motion analyzer and electromyography were utilized to measure S-curve and erector spinae muscle activity when seated. Results: The spine S-curve was better maintained and improved when sitting in the new design than in the comparison chair. Particularly notable was the greater displacement gap of the thoracic spine than the cervical spine, and also that of the lumbar more than the thoracic spine, with the increase of the backrest tilting angle. Furthermore, the electromyogram results showed the new design caused a lower fatigue level of the erector spinae muscles compared to the comparison chair, and also earned a higher preference in the subjective opinion results. Conclusion: The newly designed chair in this study responds to the user's spine curvature and maintains and enhances the lower back's natural S-curve, and thereby relieves fatigue, promotes better posture, and helps to prevent spine deformities better than existing office chairs. There is a need to widely introduce and supply this new design. Application: The new design is applicable to office and student chairs, and is expected to improve concentration and work efficiency.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.167-174
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• 2010

In this study, the optimal position for the backrest pivot of an office chair was investigated by evaluating its performance in terms of the lumbar support and sliding distance of the back from the backrest during tilting motions. The simulation was performed using a mathematical model, which included a human body and a chair. Forty-two backrest pivot points were selected on the sagittal plane around the hip joint of a sitting model. A motion analysis study was also performed using a prototype of an office chair (A-type) with a backrest pivot located on the hip joint of a normal Korean model and a typical office chair (B-type) with its pivot located under the seat. The simulation results showed that both the lordosis angle and the slide distance of the back were minimized when the backrest pivot was positioned close to the hip joint. The experimental results showed that the slide distance and gap between the sitter's lumbar and the backrest was smaller with the A-type than the B-type. Based on the simulation and experimental results, it can be concluded that the backrest can support the sitter's lumbar area more effectively as the pivot position for reclining approaches closer to the hip joint. In this position, the sitter can maintain a comfortable and healthy sitting posture. This paper presents the methods and guidelines for designing an office chair with ergonomic considerations.

• Journal of Korean Society for Quality Management
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.151-165
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• 2001

The purpose of this study is to develop systematic methods for evaluating the suitability of a seat and build an empirical model for predicting the suitability of a seat. The following research schemes were pursued to achieve the objectives - Development of suitable chair dimensions - Analysis scheme for decomposing the human-product interface system - Development of model for evaluating suitability. As a result, we uncovered six dominant suitability dimensions for the design of a comfortable seat that is related to the physical dimension of a body, Here, six suitability dimensions were identified as the dimensions that represent the human sensitivity and psychological feeling on comfortable seats. Also, 43 human-interface elements (HIE's) such as seat height, seat width, seat depth, tilting angle, seat surface etc. were investigated. HIE was generally defined as the physical characteristic of manufacturing goods, and it had close related to the body dimension of a user and environment that it was used.