• 대한물리치료과학회지
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• 제13권3호
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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.

• 대한인간공학회지
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• 제33권2호
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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.

• 한국정밀공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국정밀공학회 2009년도 춘계학술대회 논문집
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• pp.285-286
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• 2009

• 산업경영시스템학회지
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• 제38권4호
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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.

• 한국정밀공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국정밀공학회 2010년도 춘계학술대회 논문집
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• pp.1383-1384
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• 2010

• 대한인간공학회지
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• 제30권2호
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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.

• 산업경영시스템학회지
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• 제41권3호
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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.

• 대한인간공학회지
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• 제34권2호
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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.

• 대한기계학회논문집A
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• 제34권2호
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• pp.167-174
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• 2010

본 논문에서는 사무용 의자의 틸트 동작시 요추지지 기능과 등의 미끄럼을 평가함으로써 등판 회전중심의 최적 위치를 연구하였다. 이를 위해 인체와 의자로 이루어진 수학적 모델을 이용하여 틸트 동작 시뮬레이션을 수행하였다. 착석된 인체 모델의 측면 상에서 고관절 중심을 포함한 42개의 위치에 등판 회전축 위치를 설정하고 각각 시뮬레이션을 수행하였다. 또한 등판의 회전중심이 고관절에 위치한 의자 시작품과 좌판하부에 위치한 기존의 의자에 대해 동작분석 실험도 함께 수행하였다. 시뮬레이션 결과 등판의 회전중심이 고관절 중심에 가까이 위치할수록 틸트시 요추각도 변화량과 등의 미끄럼거리는 작아졌다. 한편 실험결과 착석자의 등과 등판사이의 이격변위와 미끄럼변위는 등판의 회전중심이 고관절 위치에 설계된 시작품에서 더 작게 측정되었다. 시뮬레이션과 실험결과로부터 등판의 회전중심이 인체의 고관절 위치에 가깝게 설계되면 틸트시 착석자의 요추를 효과적으로 지지해 줄 수 있음을 알 수 있었고 이때 착석자는 보다 편안하고 건강한 착석자세를 유지할 수 있다. 이 결과는 사무용 의자에서 등판 회전축 위치의 인간공학적 설계를 위한 가이드라인을 제공한다.

• 품질경영학회지
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• 제29권3호
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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.