• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea CI
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.1-8
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• 2011

In this paper, we propose a haptic display system that can convert Braille and tactual map(braille map) to tactile information recognizable through sense of touch almost in real-time. The proposed system consists of a haptic display hardware device, which actually delivers tactile signal to visually impaired people, and a device control software program, which converts Braille and tactile information to tactile signal and transfers it to the hardware device. Experimental evaluations of the proposed system were performed with 10 visually impaired persons. Experimental results show that the proposed system can provide similar Braille recognition rate and speed to those of existing Braille information devices. In addition, the proposed system converts tactile information to tactile signal under maximum 1.1 seconds, so that it can provide graphic information in almost real-time which is not possible with existing tactile devices, such as Braille printer.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.638-647
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• 2011

Various approaches directly using vibrations of speakers have been suggested to effectively display the aural information such as the music to the hearing-impaired or the deaf. However, in these approaches, the human can't sense the frequency information over the maximum perceivable vibro-tactile frequency (around 1kHz). Therefore, in this study, an approach via spectral modulation of compressing the high frequency audio information into perceivable vibro-tactile frequency domain and outputting the modulated signals through the designated speakers is proposed. Then it is shown, through simulations of using Short-Time Fourier Transform (STFT) with Hanning windows and through preliminary experiments of using the vibro-tactile display testbed which is built and interfaced with a notebook PC, that the modulated signal of a natural sound composing sounds of a frog, a bird, and a water stream could produce the noise-free signal suitable enough for vibro-tactile speakers without causing Significant interfering disturbances, Lastly, for three different combinations of information provided to the subject, that is, i) with only video image, ii) with video image along with the modulated vibro-tactile stimuli as proposed in this study to the forearm of the subject, and iii) with video image along with full audio information, the effects to the human sense of reality and his emotion to given audio-video clips including various sounds and images are investigated and compared. It is shown from results of those experiments that the proposed method of providing modulated vibro-tactile stimuli along with the video images to the human has very high feasibility to transmit pseudo-aural sense to the human.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.17-22
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• 2016

In smart factories, the entire manufacturing process from design to the final product is simulated in a virtual manufacturing environment and optimized before starting production. Suppliers and customers make decisions based on the simulation results. Therefore, effective rendering of the information of the virtual products to suppliers and customers is essential for this manufacturing paradigm. In this study, a method of rendering the surface roughness of the virtual products using a tactile display is presented. A tactile display device comprising a $3{\times}3$ array of individually controlled piezoelectric stack actuators is constructed. The surface topology of the virtual products is rendered directly by controlling the piezoelectric stack actuators. A series of experiments is performed to evaluate the performance of the tactile display device. An electrical discharge machined surface is rendered using the proposed method.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.9 no.8
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• pp.592-599
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• 2003

As one of the Principal modalities of human sensation, tactile feel is prerequisite for building wide variety of applications such as telemanipulation, virtual reality and medical engineering. A dynamic Braille display device based on a polymer actuator is presented. The actuator, often called artificial muscle actuator has advantageous features over the existing methods in terms of intrinsic softness, ease of fabrication, cost-effectiveness and miniaturization. The principles of actuation with dielectric elastomer is introduced, and necessary considerations on the design of a tactile display device are discussed. The design of the device is described in detail including the fabrication process and driving electronics. Also, preliminary results of experiments are given to evaluate its performance.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2011.06a
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• pp.971-972
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• 2011

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2013.05a
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• pp.663-664
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• 2013

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.49.3-49
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• 2002

$\textbullet$ Surface Acoustic Wave $\textbullet$ Tactile Display Principle $\textbullet$ Installed on PC Mouse Button $\textbullet$ Vibration Measurement $\textbullet$ Demonstration on PC Screen $\textbullet$ Comparison Tests

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2010.11a
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• pp.985-986
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• 2010

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2004.10a
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• pp.450-453
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• 2004

A tactile stimulator array using stacked PZT is fabricated and evaluated in this paper. The purpose of this research is the development of a tactile stimulator to represent the obstacle information for the visually disabled. As a first step of this research, we investigate the physiological characteristics of tactile stimuli and design a tactile stimulator based on the investigated results. Also we evaluated a fabricated tactile stimulator. The prototype of tactile stimulator which has 2$\times$2 tactor elements with 3mm spacing is fabricated using stacked PZT actuator. In order to evaluate the characteristics of this tactile stimulator, physiological experiments are carried out. In the experiment, the threshold of tactile stimulus intensity within a frequency range of 5-500Hz at various stimulus amplitudes are investigated. According to the obtained experimental result, the input signal of tactile stimulator for the effective transfer of obstacle information is determined. Also physiological experiments of multi-stimuli recognition such as shift and rotation are carried out

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.145-150
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• 2005

This paper presents an Electrotactile Display System (ETCS). One of the most important human sensory systems for human computer interaction is the sense of touch, which can be displayed to human through tactile output devices. To realize the sense of touch, electrotactile display produces controlled, localized touch sensation on the skin by passing small electric current. In electrotactile stimulation, the mechanoreceptors in the skin may be stimulated individually in order to display the sense of vibration, touch, itch, tingle, pressure etc. on the finger, palm, arm or any suitable location of the body by using appropriate electrodes and waveforms. We developed an ETCS and investigated effectiveness of the proposed system in terms of the perception of roughness of a surface by stimulating the palmar side of hand with different waveforms and the perception of direction and location information through forearm. Positive and negative pulse trains were tested with different current intensities and electrode switching times on the forearm or finger of the user with an electrode-embedded armband in order to investigate how subjects recognize displayed patterns and directions of stimulation.