• Korean Journal of Applied Biomechanics
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.209-217
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• 2012

The purpose of this study was to develop a turn-type treatment program which applies the principle of spotting and a roll-type treatment program that induces off-vertical axis. 29 collegiate students volunteered for this study. 12-week treatment programs were applied to both 15 students for turn-type treatment group and 14 students for roll-type treatment group. As an analytic tool, eye camera was employed to verify the treatment programs for a stimulus upon a turn, recovery after a stimulus upon a turn, and nystagmus that affects a vestibular system. Two-way ANOVA with repeated measures was applied to see the significant differences between the treatment groups, and between the test periods. For Post-Hoc Test, paired t-test was used to within the group and independent t-test was used to between the groups. The results indicated that roll-type treatment training has maximized a stimulus on nystagmyus during the stimulus by a roll. Turn-type treatment training has maximized a stimulus on nystagmyus right after a stimulus by a roll and significantly decreased the intensity of nystagmyus during the recovery. Both turn and roll type treatments have reduced the recovery time which from nystagmyus to a normal status. Roll-type treatment has showed a much shorter recovery time for nystagmyus than the roll-type treatment has. Based on the results of treatment programs developed in this study, we expect the treatment programs can be applied to treat dizziness and to improve the function of vestibular system as a rehabilitation tool.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.292-301
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• 2010

To restore visual sensation of blind patients, we have proposed a fully implantable retinal prosthesis comprising an three dimensionally (3D) stacked retinal chip for transforming optical signal to electrical signal, a flexible cable with stimulus electrode array for stimulating retina cells, and coupling coils for power transmission. The 3D stacked retinal chip is consisted of several LSI chips such as photodetector, signal processing circuit, and stimulus current generator. They are vertically stacked and electrically connected using 3D integration technology. Our retinal prosthesis has a small size and lightweight with high resolution, therefore it could increase the patients` quality of life (QOL). For realizing the fully implantable retinal prosthesis, we developed a retinal prosthesis module comprising a retinal prosthesis chip and a flexible cable with stimulus electrode array for generating optimal stimulus current. In this study, we used a 2D retinal chip as a prototype retinal prosthesis chip. We fabricated the polymide-based flexible cable of $20{\mu}m$ thickness where 16 channels Pt stimulus electrode array was formed in the cable. Pt electrode has an impedance of $9.9k{\Omega}$ at 400Hz frequency. The retinal prosthesis chip was mounted on the flexible cable by an epoxy and electrically connected by Au wire. The retinal prosthesis chip was cappted by a silicone to pretect from corrosive environments in an eyeball. Then, the fabricated retinal prosthesis module was implanted into an eyeball of a rabbit. We successfully recorded electrically evoked potential (EEP) elicited from the rabbit brain by the current stimulation supplied from the implanted retinal prosthesis module. EEP amplitude was increased linearly with illumination intensity and irradiation time of incident light. The retinal prosthesis chip was well functioned after implanting into the eyeball of the rabbit.

• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2014

In this study, the effect of the automotive haptic-seat technology which can transmit the driving information by the vibro-stimulus from the seat was investigated to overcome previous system's limitation relied on the visual and audial method and to help handicap driving. A prototype haptic seat covers with 30 coin-type motors and driver module were developed for this sake. A driving simulator on the 6-DOF motion-base was used for driving situation and we executed the seat vibro-stimulus test with 10 young participants who have normal tactile sense. The haptic recognition ratio by 30 locations was measured and analyzed in the result. The intensity of vibro-stimulus was adjusted by input voltage of motors (1.5V,2.5V,3.5V). All vibro-stimulus locations at 2.5V and 3.5V could be recognized by all participants and even in the lowest recognition ratio of 1.5V. The results showed that the seat vibration stimulus could be useful to transfer the drivers' information while driving.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2002.07a
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• pp.18-21
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• 2002

We present a phase covariance model that can well represent stimulus intensity as well af feature binding (i.e., covariance). The model is represented by complex neural equations, which is a mean field model of stochastic neural model such as Boltzman machine and sigmoid belief networks.

• Restorative Dentistry and Endodontics
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.85-98
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• 1991

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of low - power laser used in the medical field for various purposes to suppress pain responses evoked by noxious electrical or mechanical stimuli. After both inferior alveolar nerves and the left anterior digastric muscle of cats under general anesthesia were exposed, a recording electrode for the jaw opening reflex was inserted into the anterior digastric muscle. The right inferior alveolar nerve was dissected under a surgical microscope until the response of the functional single nerve could be evoked by the electrical stimulation of the dental pulp or oral mucosa. The electrical stimulus was applied with a rectangular pulse of 10 ms duration for measuring the threshold intensity of a single nerve fiber in the inferior alveolar nerve which responds to stimulation of dental pulp and oral mucosa. Then a pulse of 1 ms duration was applied for determination of conduction velocity. A noxious mechanical stimulus to the oral mucosa was applied by clamping the receptive field with an arterial clamp. The Ga-As diodide laser(wave length, 904 nm ; frequency, 1,000 Hz) was irradiated to the prepared tooth cavity, inferior alveolar nerve and oral mucosa as a pulse wave of 2 mW for 6 minutes. This was followed by a continuous wave of 15 mW for 3 minutes. The action potential of the nerve and EMG of the digastric muscle evoked by the noxious electrical stimulus and nerve response to noxious mechanical stimulus were compared at intervals of before, immediately after, and at 5, 10, 20, 40, 60 minutes after laser irradiation. The results were as follows: The conduction velocity of the intrapulpal $A{\delta}$- nerve fiber recorded from the inferior alveolar nerve before irradiation had a mean value of $6.68{\pm}2.07m/sec$. The laser irradiation did not affect the conduction velocity of the AS - nerve fiber and did not change the threshold intensity or amplitude of the action potential either. The EMG of the digastric muscle evoked by noxious electrical stimulation to the tooth was not changed by the laser irradiation, whether in latency, threshold intensity or amplitude. The laser irradiated to the receptive field of the oral mucosa which was subjected to noxious stimuli did not affect the amplitude of the action potential or the frequency either.

• Journal of the HCI Society of Korea
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.19-26
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• 2006

This paper presents a novel pneumatic tactile display that can deliver some useful information. The air-jet display forms 5 by 5 arrays and features air nozzles with an external diameter of 2.4mm and internal diameter of 1.5 mm. In comparison with other tactile displays such as vibrotactile, there is little concrete psychophysical data relating to pneumatic displays, a fact which hinders their adoption. This paper addresses this challenge, and presents brief psychophysical studies examining localization rate, the two point threshold, stimulus intensity and the temporal threshold of cues produced by pneumatic air jets. Two groups of subjects were used in these studies, subsequently termed groups A and B. Both were comprised of eight participants. In the case of localization study we obtained 58.13% and 85.9% of localization rates each for dense display and sparse display. Two-points threshold test showed the length of gap between two air-jet stimuli which subjects can detect. However, it was formidable to find out precise temporal resolution of PTI owing to the limitation of capability of the pneumatic valves. Lastly, the results of stimulus intensity study suggest that by varying the size of a pneumatically created tactile stimulus, we can effectively vary its perceived magnitude.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.183-190
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• 1999

The purpose of this study was to develop a portable and convenient closed-loop contrel type electrical stimulator for patients with foot drop. This system restores walking movement as well as prevents from atrophy or necrosis of lower limb muscles and increases blood circulation in hemiplegic patients caused by traffic accident, industrial disaster or stoke. This system detects the changes of the ankle joint angle during walking, and then controls the stimulus intensity automatically to maintain the programmed level of the ankle joint angle. Also, this automatic system controls the stimulus intensity which is affected by increased electrode impedance resulting from long time use. The system detects the joint angle by an optical sensor and includes modified PID control which adjusts the stimulus intensity if the joint angle deviates from the preset value. Stimulus parameters are 30~80 volt, 40 Hz, and 0.2 ms. The system was applied to five hemiplegic patients for 42 days. Duration of stimulation was 15 min/day for the first week and then the duration was gradually increased to 30, 60, 90 and 120 min/day. The muscle force was increased up to 29.7%, muscle fatigue was decreased compared with the level before stimulation and the pattern of locomotion was improved. These results suggest that the electrical stimulator with closed-loop control type is more convenient and effective in restoration of locomotion of patients with foot drop than open-loop system.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.201-206
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• 2004

The bone formation and re-formation are regulated by two factors that are the synthesis of bone matrix by osteoblast and reabsorption by osteoclast. Recently, there are many studies about regeneration and healing of bone tissue by activation of osteoblast. In general, it is known that the activation of osteoblast is influenced by not only biological stimulus but physical stimulus. In this study, we verified that ostoeblast activation was influenced by low intensity ultrasound. Various ultrasonic properties were used to find out the most appropriate condition on cell activation. From this study, we could confirm that 0.3W/$\textrm{cm}^2$ intensity of ultrasound was the most appropriate to tell activation over whole duty cycles and the increasing rate of tell was the highest at 50％ duty cycle. Thus, it is expected that optimal ultrasonic characteristics on regeneration of bone matrix may be applied to fracture and osteoporosis healing.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Clinical Electrophysiology
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.7-10
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• 2009

Purpose : The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of electrical stimulation applied in dominant forearm on autonomic nervous system response of both hands. Methods : Fourteen healthy subjects (women) received low frequency-high intensity electrical stimulation to one forearm. The subjects assigned to two groups; a ipsilateral stimulation group (n=7) and a contralateral stimulation group (n=7). The electrode attachment was arranged on the forearm of the dominant arm and the electricity stimulus time was set as 15 minutes. Measuring items were the skin conduction velocity, the blood flow, and the pulse rate, which were measured total 3 times (pre, post, and post 10 min.). Results : The skin conduction velocity showed a significant difference according to the change of the time in both hands, but there was no significant difference according to time in the blood flow, and the change of the pulse frequency regardless of stimulus side. Conclusion : These results demonstrate that the low frequency-high intensity electrical stimulation applied dominant forearm can increase selectively only with the skin conduction velocity, which may be helpful for the activation of the sudomotor function of both hands by the activation of sympathetic nerve.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.235-242
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• 2016

A system for measuring the electrodermal activity (EDA) signal occurring at the sweat glands in the left palm and left finger of the human body was implemented in this study. The EDA measurement system (EDAMS) consisted of an algometer, a biopotential measurement system (BPMS), and a PC. Two experiments were performed to evaluate the function and clinical applicability of EDAMS. First, an experiment was carried out on the linearity of the voltage and the pressure that comprised the output signals of the algometer used for applying a pressure stimulus. Second, the amplitude of the EDA signal acquired from the electrode attached to the left palm or finger was measured while increasing the pressure stimulus of the algometer. When the pressure stimulus of the algometer applied to the left scapula was increased, the amplitude of the EDA signal increased. The amplitude of the EDA signal at the left palm was observed to be greater than that at the left finger. The amplitude of the EDA signal was observed to increase in a relatively linear relation with the intensity of the pressure stimuli. In addition, the latency of the EDA signal acquired from the electrode attached to the left palm or finger was measured while increasing the pressure stimulus of the algometer. When the pressure stimulus of the algometer applied to the left scapula was increased, the latency of the EDA signal decreased. The latency of the EDA signal at the palm was observed to be less than that at the finger. The latency of the EDA signal was observed to decrease nonlinearly with the pressure stimuli.