• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.51-62
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• 1996

This research utilized the psychophysical methodology, where secrw drivers are used, to determine the effects of i) the location and orientation of work objects, and ii) wearing gloves, on ratings of perceived exertion at various body parts. The validity of the psychophysical methodology in determining a preferred work pace was also studied. The subjects drove screws with a screw driver into thick wooden sheet at three vertical and three horizontal locations. They drove serews for 3 minutes at each location and assessed the condition using the psychophysical scale. The results showed that only the vertical location was a significant factor in determining the discomfort ratings. Driving screws at elbow height on the vertical surface and with the lower arm close to the body on the horizontal surface were the work locations with the smallest ratings of perceived discomfort. Wearing gloves had significant effects on reducing the pain of the hand. From the experiment in which a comfortable work pace was identified using 20 minute psychophysical adjustment, it was found that the psychophysical method is sensitive to workers perception of the physical stress when the upper limbs are employed. This was confirmend by the high correlation between the psychophysical results and EMG measurement.

• Proceedings of the ESK Conference
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• 1993.10a
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• pp.133-144
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• 1993

Psychophysical data, in general, belong to one of the four scale categories : Nominal, Ordinal, Interval, and Ratio Scale. This paper introduces properties of the four scale categories and describes some psychophysical scales that attempt to measure subjective feeling or opinion of human. In addition, guidelines of analyzing and interpreting measured data are suggested. Some examples of analyzing and interpreting paychophysical data inappropriately are presented especially with category scales which have been used most widely in measuring subjective information.

• Proceedings of the Korean Operations and Management Science Society Conference
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• 1994.04a
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• pp.580-586
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• 1994

Psychophysical method는 육체의 자극과 그 자극에 반응하는 인간의 감각과의 관계를 다루는 것으로, 드는 작업시의 하중에 관한 외국의 연구에서 자주 사용되고 있는 방법중의 하나이다. Psychophysical method를 사용하면 8시간 작업을 실제로 하지 않고서도 훨씬 적은 시간의 실험을 통하여 8시간 작업시와 근사한 결과를 얻을 수 있는 장점이 있다. 따라서 이 방법은 시간과 경비를 줄인다는 이점이 있어 많이 사용되고 있다. 본 연구에서는 외국인과 스트레스를 느끼는 정도, 그리고 신체적 차이가 있는 한국의 피실험자에게도 psychophysical method가 적용 가능한가를 알아보기 위하여 우리나라 작업자와 학생에 대하여 연구를 하였다. 20분과 8시간 동안의 드는 작업을 실시한 결과, 작업자군은 20분 동안의 드는 실험에서 8시간 동안의 작업이 육체에 주는 스트레스의 96%를 예측할 수 있었으나 학생군에 있어서는 76%밖에 예측하지 못하였다. 따라서 우리나라에서는 작업 경험이 부족한 학생들에게 psychophysical method를 적용할 경우 보정이 필요하나, 작업 경험이 풍부한 작업자들에게는 용이하게 적용할 수 있음을 알 수 있었다.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.96-100
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• 2012

Low back pain (LBP) is a major issue in modern industrialized society which is mainly caused by manual material handling (MMH) tasks. The objective of this study was to provide scientific data for establishing work standard for Korean workers throughout the laboratory experiment including some specific lifting tasks. Thirty male college students were recruited as participants. The maximum voluntary contraction (MVC), recommended weight limit (RWL), and psychophysical safety weight using Borg's CR-10 scale were studied. Results showed that the RWL was 8.4% MVC higher than the proposed psychophysical safety weight. Based on this result, it is suggested that the NIOSH lifting equation (NLE) should not be directly applied to Korean without reasonable modifications. The ratio of psychophysical safety weight to MVC was ranged from 20.1 to 26.4%. It is expected that use of the methodology in this study may provide better expectation of the work ability of Korean for reducing lower back pains caused by MMH.

• Proceedings of the Korean Operations and Management Science Society Conference
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• 1994.04a
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• pp.561-568
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• 1994

A man model can be used as an effective tool to design ergonomically sound products and workplaces, and subsequently evaluate them properly. For a man model to be truly useful, it must be integrated with a posture prediction model which should be capable of representing the human arm reach posture in the context of equipments and workspaces. Since the human movement possesses redundant degrees of freedom, accurate representation or prediction of human movement was known to be a difficult problem. To solve this redundancy problem, a psychophysical cost function was suggested in this study which defines a cost value for each joint movement angle. The psychophysical cost function developed integrates the psychophysical discomfort of joints and the joint range availability concept which has been used for redundant arm manipulation in robotics to predict the arm reach posture. To properly predict an arm reach posture, an arm reach posture prediction model was then developed in which a posture configuration that provides the minimum total cost is chosen. The predictivity of the psychophysical cost function was compared with that of the biomechanical cost function which is based on the minimization of joint torque. Here, the human body is regarded as a two-dimensional multi-link system which consists of four links ; trunk, upper arm, lower arm and hand. Real reach postures were photographed from the subjects and were compared to the postures predicted by the model. Results showed that the postures predicted by the psychophysical cost function closely simulated human reach postures and the predictivity was more accurate than that by the biomechanical cost function.

• Journal of the Optical Society of Korea
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.145-150
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• 2012

We present a display-based visual stimulator for psychophysical and electrophysiological visual sensitivity measurements. The stimulator offers various psychophysical visual stimuli and transfers the signals from external devices along with the stimulation signals to an electrophysiological recorder. As an experimental demonstration, we perform a visual sensitivity experiment in the mesopic vision range by using the display-based stimulator. The intensity of the steady-state visual evoked potential is observed to correlate with the luminance of the flickering visual stimulation. For the psychophysically determined detection thresholds, we determine the mesopic luminance, showing agreement with the perceived brightness within the uncertainty of the luminance measurement.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.57-63
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• 1994

This paper summarizes recent research in the use of the psychophysical method of adjustment to establish acceptable parameters for upper extremity work activities. Results from these studies show that this psychophysical approach can provide reliable guidelines based upon realistic job conditions which involve one or more risk factors for cumulative trauma. It is also shown that this method provides advantages over other psychophysical methods as well as current biomechanical and physioligical criteria.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.1-12
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• 1999

The objective of this study was to investigate the metabolic energy consumption rate of the psychophysical Maximum Acceptable Weight of Loads (MAWLs) for different manual materials handling tasks. Lifting activities with four different lifting frequencies (2, 5, 8, 11 lifts/min) for a lifting range (from floor to 76cm height) were studied. The oxygen consumption rate and heart rate were measured or recorded while subjects were lifting their MAWLs. It was found that the relationship between MAWL and frequency can be described best by the exponential function with the R-sq value 0.9865 for this study. Psychophysical MAWL decreased from 22.38 to 7.48 kg, while the oxygen consumption rate with the MAWL increased from 717.8 to $1114.7m{\ell}-O_2/min$ as the frequency increased from 2 to 11 lifts/min. Heart rate also increased from 104.5 to 120.7 bpm. The ratio of oxygen consumption for the MAWL to the Physical Work Capacity (PWC) ranged from 28 to 43%. The MAWLs were greater than or equal to the Maximum Permissible Limits (MPLs) when the frequencies were higher than 8 lifts/min. It seems that the MAWLs by psychophysical approach when the frequencies were higher than 8 lifts/min tend to be overestimated from the viewpoint of the physiological criterion of the oxygen consumption rates. From these findings it is suggested that the NIOSH Guideline should not be directly applied to Korean without reasonable modifications.

• Proceedings of the ESK Conference
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• 1997.04a
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• pp.39-49
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• 1997

The objective of this study was to make comparison of the psychophysical MAWLs for different manual materials handling tasks. Lifting activities with four different lifting frequencies (2, 5, 8, 11 lifts/min) for one lifting range from floor to 76cm height were studied. The oxygen consumption rate and heart rate were measured or recorded while subjects were lifting their MAWLs. Psychophysical MAWL decreased from 22.38 kg to 7.48 kg, while th oxygen consumption rate with the MAWL increased from 717.8 ml/min to 1114.7 ml/min as the frequency increased from 2 to 11 Lifts/min. Heart rate also increased from 104.5 to 120.7 bpm. It was found that the relationship between MAWL and frequency can be described best by the exponentaial function with the R-sq value 0.9865 for this study. The percent ratio of oxygen consumption rate with the MAWL and PWC ranged from 28% to 43%.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.11 no.11
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• pp.943-949
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• 2005

For the psychophysical experiment of tactile perception of shapes, experimental system consists of vibrator, tactile stimulation array, measurement and control system is designed and prepared. The psychophysical experiment for the tactile perception of shape is carried out by the estimation of the subject group. Through the experiment the threshold of tactile perception to multi-stimuli with some line shape is obtained. Also the appropriate tactile stimulus intensity and frequency of the tactile stimulation array to recognize arbitrary shapes effectively are derived and discussed.