• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
• /
• v.39 no.1
• /
• pp.63-76
• /
• 2015

This study conducted a survey to gauge the buying and wearing propensities of wearers of leg guards made for baseball catchers, as well as product characteristics of preferred leg guards. Data from the survey were analyzed to obtain basic data for the development of an advanced leg guard design. Degree of compression, horizontal distance, cross section view and outline 3D sketch were also analyzed from the 3D data of leg guards; in addition, mobility and kinematic analysis were conducted through a wearing test. The survey indicated that imported products dominate the current retail market because they are appreciated by customers in terms of fit, price, brand, and protection. Representative complaints of products were discomfort, pressure, and the heavy-weight of the leg guards in general attributed to overall structure and 3D shape. When the pressure was lower on the front area of knee, it feels better to wear and the average knee angular velocity during the up and down motion increased, which suggests a better design from a kinematic point of view. The knee is the primary part of the body responsible for any movement of the lower limbs; consequently, the degree of compression and support stability of the leg guards near the knee area are important factors to evaluate the performance of leg guards. The results of our study indicate significant opportunities for improvement in product design and the development of baseball leg guards along with an ergonomic design that considers the mobility of the knee, skin deformations is necessary to improve performance. The process followed in this study will be applicable to studies on other personal protective equipment for sports.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
• /
• v.32 no.11
• /
• pp.1792-1801
• /
• 2008

This study was to develope the pesticide-proof clothes(PPC) for fruit-grower which has been well known over applied agricultural chemicals. The ergonomic evaluation of PPC were tested in two ways. Male adults volunteered the tests to evaluate the safety to pesticide in the field and the thermal comforts in the climate-chamber($30^{\circ}C$, 60%R.H.). PPC were made of 4 different fabrics. Two of them were on the market(coated non-woven and coated nylon). Others were water-repellent treatment and coated waterproof film by developed polyester. The field study was conducted for farmers growing apples to evaluate pesticide exposure. In this experiment, we collected data with patch test on the head, chest, back, right upperarm, right forearm, left thigh and left calf. From the results, the developed PPC showed the more excellent comfort than an existing PPC with nylon coated polyurethane. But the developed PPC of water-repellent fabric was penetrated into the PPC. Therefore, we designed the functional pesticide-proof clothes of 2 different developed polyester fabrics(water-repellent treatment in chest, abdomen, the lower of back, waist, and calf; coated waterproof film in head, shoulder, the upper of back, the crotch, hip, upper arm and thigh).

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
• /
• v.8 no.1
• /
• pp.24-35
• /
• 1998

Cumulative trauma disorders(CTDs) have been a growing problems for US and European industries with higher incidence rate every year. The increase and their associated costs has led companies to form committes and implement programs to address this problem. In our country, we have just started to recognize and to work on the problems in industry. This study conducted an ergonomic analysis for typical jobs of ship building industry which was not usually surveyed for CTD problem. A baseline CTD checklist which was supposed to do a risk assessment was developed and applied in this study. Initially, we considered five major parts in the checklist which consisted of personal, frequency, posture, force, and miscellaneous information. Most jobs in ship building industry were much different from typical assembly work and VDT work that have been major part of the previous CTD studies. Specifically, job characteristics in terms of frequency and posture were quite different. There were relatively long cycle time, awkward postures for whole body (not just for upper extremities). Also, CTD risk scores based on checklist were a lot higher than the scores for VDT jobs which was a case of preceding application of the checklist. Specifically, grinding jobs turned out to be the most risky one in terms of CTDs. In conclusion, usual CTD prevention guidelines are not likely to he effective in this type of industry. An individual job based interventions are strongly suggested to have a good control of CTD problems in ship building industry.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
• /
• v.19 no.4
• /
• pp.412-422
• /
• 2009

This study was conducted to assess exposure to musculoskeletal disorder(MSD) risk factors in hospital personnel who performed non-routinized work tasks. A tool ("PATH-KOSHA" version) was newly revised from PATH(Posture, Activity, Tools and Handling) method and uploaded into a personal digital assistant(PDA). The version was used, on a basis of direct-observation, to collect PATH data at the 2 hospital settings in different regions. Job analysis was performed to get various information (e.g., work and rest time, task type) as well. The data collected were visually checked for data cleaning and stored for future data analysis. A total of 1,992 PATH observations were made for 37 hospital workers. Exposure levels varied across 18 items of the MSD risk factors. The highest percent time spent on non-neutral postures was 53% for wrist deviation, followed by 47%(pinch grip), 35%(trunk posture), 23%(neck posture), and 20%(shoulder/arm posture). The highest percent time spent among hand activity level(HAL) variables was 55% for HAL-cat2 (HAL: 3.3 - <6.7). The percent time of items with respect to both loads with more than 5kg and contact stress was less than 4%. Vibration was not exposed in the study workers. Different aspects were discussed for findings. The study results showed that wrist deviation was highest in percent time spent on awkward posture while HAL-cat2 was highest in hand repetition. The study suggests that distal upper extremity posture and HAL should be primarily addressed and controlled in non-routinized work including the hospital settings.

• Physical Therapy Korea
• /
• v.15 no.3
• /
• pp.1-7
• /
• 2008

Multi-sensory systems, including the visual, somatosensory, and vestibular ones, are involved in maintaining standing balance. The organization of these sensory systems is as important as the efficiency of each individual system in maintaining optimal balance. The purpose of the present experiment was to investigate the developmental changes in static standing balance and sensory organization under altered sensory conditions. This study involved 64 children (from 4 to 15 years of age) and 17 young adults. The children were divided into four age groups: 4~6, 7~9, 10~12, and 13~15 years. Static standing balance was assessed with the one-leg standing test under four different sensory conditions: the children stood on a firm surface with (1) eyes open or (2) closed, and they stood on a foam surface with eyes (3) open or (4) closed. In balancing ability, the age groups exhibited significant differences. The function of sensory organization for balance control was poorer for the children than for the young adults. The functional efficiency of the somatosensory system of the children aged 7~9 years was at the young adults' level, and the visual function of the children aged 10~12 years had also reached the young adults' level. However, the functional efficiency of the vestibular system of children was significantly lower than that of the young adults, even at the age of 15 years. This may indicate that sensory organization and standing balance are still developing after the age of 15 years.

• Physical Therapy Korea
• /
• v.15 no.3
• /
• pp.44-52
• /
• 2008

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of different objects and target location of dominant hand on the non-dominant hand movement kinematics in a bimanual reaching task. Fifteen right-handed volunteers were asked to reach from same starting point to the different target point of right and left hand with grasping the objects of different size. Independent variables were 1) three different object types (small mug cup, name pen, and PET bottle), and 2) three different target locations (shorter distance, same distance, and longer distance than the non-dominant hand) of the dominant hand. Dependent variables were movement time (MT), movement distance (MD), movement mean velocity ($MV_{mean}$), and movement peak velocity ($MV_{peak}$) of the non-dominant hand. Repeated measures two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to test for differences in the non-dominant hand movement kinematics during bimanual reaching. The results of this study were as follows: 1) MT of the non-dominant hand was increased significantly when traveling with grasping the mug cup and reaching the far target location, and was decreased significantly when traveling with grasping the PET bottle and reaching the near target location of the dominant hand. 2) MD of the non-dominant hand was significantly increased during reaching the far target location, and significantly decreased during reaching the near target location with dominant hand. 3) $MV_{mean}$ of the non-dominant hand was increased significantly when traveling with grasping the PET bottle, and was decreased significantly when traveling with grasping the mug cup of the dominant hand. Therefore, it can be concluded that the changes of the ipsilateral hand movement have influence on coupling of the contralateral hand movement in bimanual reaching.

• The Journal of the Korean dental association
• /
• v.48 no.12
• /
• pp.893-918
• /
• 2010

This article is purposed of reviewing the development history of Japanese dental devices and instrument, and their related advertisement activities during the Japanese colonized period in Korea in early 20th century. Japanese dental devices and instrument were redesigned to accommodate their ergonomic shape above the simple imitation, and it implies the excessive desires brought them frustrations. The tragic earthquake on Sep. l, 1923, medical insurance law enforcement on Jan. 1, 1927, celebration of "Cavity prevention Day" started on Jun. 4, 1928, and the attack of Manchuria and China by Japan after 1931, all of these historical incidents become the preliminary requirement for the development of dental devices. On Nov. 1, 1937, Japanese government started to control dental materials, driving the campaigns for excluding foreign products and encourging the use of local products. In 1939, Nakajima dental manufacturers used this political and social atmosphere on their advertisement as saying "Our Nakajima's products have no compromise with the short raw materials, but only commitment to our quality". Since after 1940, the price and supply have been strongly under control, and the control group was appeared to manage all of supply and distribution of raw materials, regular price system, and specifications. At last, the Japanese national power were devastated in its production and distribution capacities, and get to the frustrated period. The main advertised dental devices and instruments in Korea during the Japanese colonized period were 1) dental chair, unit and cabinet, 2) dental x-ray, 3) compressors, 4) dental needles, 5) small instrument and carryon medical(emergency) kit, 6) oral hygiene and pyorrhea alveolaris, infrared rays, sunlight lamp, ultrashort wave treatment devices, 7)crown former, electric furnace, casting machine, articulator, electric lathe, and laboratory equipments, etc.

• Journal of The Korea Institute of Healthcare Architecture
• /
• v.17 no.3
• /
• pp.35-42
• /
• 2011

Efficient space plans are built upon relations of both human and physical compositions, and the standard of the interaction is basically the human scale. Especially in medical areas, the character of the users within human scale design environment is quite significant. Unlike large hospitals with great plans and scalability performed by experts, mid-sized clinics tend to have limited space, designed by non-specialists who highlight aesthetics over functionality in floor plans which leads to poor quality in medical service. For this reason, this study will include the application of human scale based therapy rooms within the clinic from a physical standpoint and will further analyze and pinpoint any room for improvement to further enable more efficient ergonomic space planning. In this study, theoretically will contemplate over human scale, mid-sized clinic, therapies, and therapists, while the case study will include status of the recent human scale based mid-sized clinic from a physical viewpoint, classification and analysis amongst human and physical compositions chosen by discretion from either a newly opened or a newly re-modeled clinic within the last 2 years, which has 15 beds or more, minimum 3 physical therapists, with more than 5 different therapy facilities in the metropolitan area in order to measure the human scale of therapy rooms in a mid-sized clinic. As a result, the area where improvement can practically be applied is the physical composition, which does not include human scale like human composition factors as therapists and patients, and hence, I suggest the human scale applied efficient medical space plan become the base of this study and look forward to subsequent improvement in the quality of medical services.

• IE interfaces
• /
• v.18 no.3
• /
• pp.288-296
• /
• 2005

Many jobs and activities in our daily lives require squatting postures. The fore part includes housekeepers, farmers, and welders and the latter includes a wide variety of activities such as housekeeping; planting, cultivating and harvesting various agricultural products; grinding, welding, etc. It is speculated that prolonged squatting postures without any supporting stool would gradually cause musculoskeletal injuries to workers. This study is conducted to examine the proper height of stools according to the position of the working materials and to develop wearable stools for workers with squatting posture. Forty male and female subjects participated in the experiment to find the proper height of stools according to the position of the working materials. Subjects were asked to squat and work with 3 different working positions: floor level; ankle level; shank level of 3 different stool height conditions: 10cm height; 15cm height; and 20cm height. After 5 minutes of maintaining a squatting work posture while sitting on the different height stools, Likert summated rating method as well as pairwise ranking test was applied to evaluate the user preferences for provided stools under the conditions of different working positions. The results of statistical analysis show that the subjects preferred 10cm height stool for floor level, 15cm height stool for ankle level, 20cm height stool for knee level. We thus strongly recommend to use appropriate height stools in accordance with the different working positions. Moreover, a prototype wearable stool was designed such that workers with squatting posture do not need to move the stool while they are moving about. The purpose of developing wearable stool was to decrease the physical stress and hence promote worker's health who work with squatting posture.

• Journal of Korean Institute of Industrial Engineers
• /
• v.40 no.3
• /
• pp.299-304
• /
• 2014

Objective : The present study was intended to develop a design ideation and evaluation process for the development of ecology-, ergonomics-, and economy-friendly ($E^3$-friendly) products. Background : Due to increasing social and legal requirements on global sustainability, manufacturing companies have made more efforts ever than before for the development of eco-friendly products. However, most eco-friendly products are often criticized due to lacking ergonomic and/or economic considerations. Method : An $E^3$-friendly product development process consisting of (1) survey of eco-friendly products, (2) characterization of eco-friendly products, (3) design ideation for $E^3$-friendly product, and (4) design idea evaluation for $E^3$-friendliness was established and applied to the development of a novel product which supports drinking of daily recommended amount of water. Results : Fifty-five design characteristics were identified by a survey of forty eco-friendly products and incorporated into the proposed ideation and evaluation process. New ideas and design changes were developed effectively using the proposed development process for a novel $E^3$-friendly bottle for support of water drinking. Conclusion : The proposed process was found effective for the development of eco-friendly design ideas and improvements. Application : The proposed system would be of use to develop better design ideas having market competitiveness.