• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.8 no.10
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• pp.3423-3438
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• 2014

In recent years, wearable sensor devices are reshaping the way people live, work, and play. A wearable sensor device is a computer that is subsumed into the personal space of the user, and is always on, and always accessible. Therefore, among the most salient aspects of a wearable sensor device should be a small form factor, long battery lifetime, and real-time characteristics. Thereby, sophisticated applications of a wearable sensor device use real-time operating systems to guarantee real-time deadlines. The deterministic multi-dimensional task scheduling algorithms are implemented on ARC (Actual Remote Control) with relatively limited hardware resources. ARC is a wearable wristwatch-type remote controller; it can also serve as a universal remote control, for various wearable sensor devices. In the proposed algorithms, there is no limit on the maximum number of task priorities, and the memory requirement can be dramatically reduced. Furthermore, regardless of the number of tasks, the complexity of the time and space of the proposed algorithms is O(1). A valuable contribution of this work is to guarantee real-time deadlines for wearable sensor devices.

• Journal of information and communication convergence engineering
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.14-18
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• 2014

A recent major development in computer technology is the advent of wearable computer systems. Wearable computer systems employ a wireless universal serial bus (WUSB), which refers to a combination of USB with the WiMedia wireless technical specifications. In this study, we focus on an integrated system of WUSB over wireless body area networks (WBANs) for wireless wearable computer systems. However, current WBAN MACs do not have well-defined quality of service (QoS) mapping and resource allocation mechanisms to support multimedia streams with the requested QoS parameters. To solve this problem, we propose a novel QoS-aware time slot allocation method. The proposed method provides fair and adaptive QoS provisioning to isochronous streams according to current traffic loads and their requested QoS parameters by executing a QoS satisfaction algorithm at the WUSB/WBAN host. The simulation results show that the proposed method improves the efficiency of time slot utilization while maximizing QoS provisioning.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.286-292
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• 2009

This paper proposes a knee-wearable robot system for assisting the muscle power of human knee by processing EMG (Electromyogram) signals. Although there are many muscles affecting the knee joint motion, the rectus femoris and biceps femoris among them play a core role in the extension and flexion motion, respectively, of the knee joint. The proposed knee-wearable robot system consists of three parts; the sensor for measuring and processing EMG signals, controller for estimating and applying the required knee torque, and actuator for driving the knee-wearable mechanism. Ultimately, we suggest the motion control method for knee-wearable robot system by processing the EMG signals of corresponding two muscles in this paper. Also, we show the effectiveness of the proposed knee-wearable robot system through the experimental results.

• Journal of information and communication convergence engineering
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.7-11
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• 2013

Wearable computer systems use the wireless universal serial bus (WUSB), which refers to USB technology that is merged with WiMedia physical layer and medium access control layer (PHY/MAC) technical specifications. WUSB can be applied to wireless personal area network (WPAN) applications as well as wired USB applications such as PAN. WUSB specifications have defined high-speed connections between a WUSB host and WUSB devices for compatibility with USB 2.0 specifications. In this paper, we focus on an integrated system with a WUSB over an IEEE 802.15.6 wireless body area network (WBAN) for wireless wearable computer systems. Due to the portable and wearable nature of wearable computer systems, the WUSB over IEEE 802.15.6 hierarchical medium access control (MAC) protocol has to support power saving operations and integrate WUSB transactions with WBAN traffic efficiently. In this paper, we propose a low-power hibernation technique (LHT) for WUSB over IEEE 802.15.6 hierarchical MAC to improve its energy efficiency. Simulation results show that the LHT also integrates WUSB transactions and WBAN traffic efficiently while it achieves high energy efficiency.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.531-537
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• 2015

Hand function is one of the essential functions required to perform the activities of daily living, and wearable robots that assist or recover hand functions have been consistently developed. Previously, wearable robots commonly employed conventional robotic technology such as linkage which consists of rigid links and pin joints. Recently, as the interest in soft robotics has increased, many attempts to develop a wearable robot with a soft structure have been made and are in progress in order to reduce size and weight. This paper presents the concept of a soft wearable robot composed of a soft structure by comparing it with conventional wearable robots. After that, currently developed soft wearable robots and related issues are introduced.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Military Science and Technology
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.313-323
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• 2023

The wearable robot system is designed to assist human skeletal and muscular systems for enhancing user's abilities in various fields, including medical, industrial, and military. The military has an expanding need for wearable robots with the integration of surveillance/control systems and advanced equipment in unstructured battlefield environments. However, there is a lack of research on the design and mechanism of wearable robots, especially for power assist systems. This study proposes a lightweight wearable robot system that provides comfortable wear and muscle support effects in various movements for soldiers performing high-strength and endurance missions. The Power assist mechanism is described and verified, and the tasks that require power assist are analyzed. This study explain the system including its driving mechanism, control system, and mechanical design. Finally, the performance of the robot is verified through experiments and evaluations, demonstrating its effectiveness in muscle support.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.8 no.9
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• pp.42-54
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• 2008

In recent years, embedded systems have been expanding their application domains from traditional embedded systems such as military weapons, robots, satellites and digital convergence systems such as celluar phones, PMP(Portable Multimedia Player), PDAs(Personal Digital Assistants) to Next Generation Personal Computers(NGPCs) such as eating PCs, wearable computers. The NGPCs are network-based, human-centric digital information devices diverged from the traditional PCs used mainly for document writing, internet searching and database management. Wearable computers with battery capacity and memory size limitations have to use real-time operating systems with small footprints and low power management techniques to provide user's QoS in spite of hardware constraints. In this paper, we have designed and implemented a low-power RTOS (called eRTOS) for wearable computers. The implemented eRTOS has 18KB footprints and the dynamic power management and the device power management schemes are adapted in it. Experimental results with wearable computer applications show that the low power techniques could save energy up to 47 %.

• IEMEK Journal of Embedded Systems and Applications
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.117-124
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• 2018

Wearable devices have become widespread. Fitness band is one of common wearable devices, providing useful functions. It helps users to monitor and collect their status such as heart rate and travel distance. Wearable devices, including fitness bands, are designed in small size and it ends up having small battery capacity. In that regard, it is necessary to expand the lifetime of wearable devices. Conventional power management scheme of wearable devices is based on DVFS Ondemand Governor and peripheral control by timeout event, such as turning off the LCD. In this paper, we propose a hybrid governor applying hardware supporting low power mode such as sleep mode to exploit the periodicity of fitness band task. In addition, we show hybrid governor outperforms in power consumption than conventional power management scheme of wearable devices based on Ondemand Governor through experiments.

• The Journal of Information Systems
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.27-50
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• 2016

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of the acceptance intention towards healthcare wearable device in Korea. Specifically, this study attempted to identify the relationships among the acceptance intention towards healthcare wearable device, technical characteristics and user's personal characteristic based on UTAUT(Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology) model. Design/methodology/approach For this purpose of research, we conducted against consumers who use the wearable devices and we collected data from 219 wearable device users. The analyses were conducted using SPSS and AMOS19.0 which is powerful structural equation modeling (SEM) software. Findings The main findings are as followed; First, functional diversity, wearability, trend sensitivity and health perception are significantly related to performance expectancy, while visual aesthetic and enjoyment are not significantly related. Second, performance expectancy and effort expectancy are significantly related to acceptance intention towards healthcare wearable device. Third, effort expectancy is significantly related to performance expectancy.

• The Journal of Information Systems
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.181-202
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• 2018

Purpose Wearable device is considered as one of the methods powering the growth of the next generation. However, ICT's innovation resistance has been a contributing factor in slowing down this spread of wearable devices. Taking into consideration the lack of empirical research to this phenomenon, this study served to examine the effect of determinants of wearable devices to usage with the perspectives of behavioral economics. Design/methodology/approach: For research purposes, this study developed research hypotheses in order to empirically examine the factors that might have a significant effect on the usage of the wearable device. The empirical research was based on a survey which carried through 500 participants. Research results were evaluated via SPSS Statistics 21.0 and AMOS 19 statistical package program. Findings: Results showed that perceived costs and benefits had a significant effect on coupling. It means that perceived benefits lowering coupling and perceived costs increasing coupling. Perceived costs and benefits also had a significant effect on innovation resistance. Finally, perceived costs and benefits had a significant effect on the consumers' usage of wearable devices.