• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2007.07a
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• pp.1524-1525
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• 2007

A flexible tactile sensor module based on polyimide matrix integrated with sensing elements and pluggable terminals connector was fabricated by polymer micromachining technology for robotic applications. The tactile sensor arrays are composed of $4{\times}4$, $8{\times}8$ and $16{\times}16$ sensing elements connected with pluggable terminals connector, respectively. Especially, both the tactile sensor array and the pluggable terminals are formed in the sensor module during the fabrication process. The fabricated tactile sensor module is measured continuously in the normal force range of $0{\sim}1N$ with tactile sensor auto-evaluation system. The value of resistance is relatively increased linearly with normal force in the overall range. The variation rate of resistance is about 2.0%/N in the range of $0{\sim}0.6N$ and 1.5%/N in the range of $0.6{\sim}1N$. Also, the flexibility of the sensing module is adequate to be placed on any curved surface as cylinder because the matrix consists of polymer and metal thin film.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.19 no.12
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• pp.1138-1144
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• 2013

This paper proposes a tactile transfer and display method between a data glove and vibration motors module. The data glove is developed to capture the hand postures and to measure the grip forces. The measured data are simplified with the proposed 5-bit transfer and display algorithm, and the vibration motors module is developed to display the measured hand posture and grip force to the operator. The proposed 5-bit algorithm contains both an 8-step hand posture and 4-step grip force level information for tactile transfer to the vibration motors module. Also, the effectiveness of the proposed method is shown through several experiments.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.535-547
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• 2012

Controlling the balance of motion in a context involving a biped robot navigating a rugged surface or a step is a difficult task. In the present study, a $3{\times}5$ flexible piezoelectric tactile sensor array is developed to provide a foot pressure map and zero moment point for a biped robot. We introduce an innovative concept involving structural electrodes on a piezoelectric film in order to improve the sensitivity. The tactile sensor consists of a polymer piezoelectric film, PVDF, between two patterned flexible print circuit substrates (FPC). Additionally, a silicon rubber bump-like structure is attached to the FPC and covered by a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) layer. Experimental results show that the output signal of the sensor exhibits a linear behavior within 0.2 N ~ 9 N, while its sensitivity is approximately 42 mV/N. According to the characteristic of the tactile sensor, the readout module is designed for an in-situ display of the pressure magnitudes and distribution within $3{\times}5$ taxels. Furthermore, the trajectory of the zero moment point (ZMP) can also be calculated by this program. Consequently, our tactile sensor module can provide the pressure map and ZMP information to the in-situ feedback to control the balance of moment for a biped robot.

• Journal of Korea Multimedia Society
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.133-143
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• 2011

This paper proposes a mobile navigation system which haptically presents the way to go to visually impaired persons. In order to convey the tactile information to the visually impaired persons, we develop a new tactile module with a solenoid, a permanent magnet and an elastic spring. Furthermore, we suggest 2D vibration flow which originates from one point and gradually propagates to other points on a surface of the haptic navigation system. The tactile module and the vibration flow method are incorporated into the proposed haptic navigation system and they stimulate the user's finger pad and palm, respectively. We conduct experiments to investigate that the proposed navigation system haptically provides the direction to the users. From the experimental results, we verify that the proposed system can generate enough tactile sensation to guide the direction to go in real-time.

• ETRI Journal
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.305-310
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• 2007

If a virtual object in a virtual environment represented by a stereo vision system could be touched by a user with some tactile feeling on his/her fingertip, the sense of reality would be heightened. To create a visual impression as if the user were directly pointing to a desired point on a virtual object with his/her own finger, we need to align virtual space coordinates and physical space coordinates. Also, if there is no tactile feeling when the user touches a virtual object, the virtual object would seem to be a ghost. Therefore, a haptic interface device is required to give some tactile sensation to the user. We have constructed such a human-computer interaction system in the form of a simple virtual reality game using a stereo vision system, a vibro-tactile device module, and two position/orientation sensors.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.888-891
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• 2005

In this paper, the prototype of a walking guide robot with tactile display is introduced, and the psychophysical experiment of the tactile recognition for a tactile display is carried out and analyzed. The objective of this research is the development of a walking guide robot for the blind to walk safely. A walking guide robot consists of a guide vehicle and a tactile display device. A guide vehicle, located in the front of the walking blind, detects the obstacle using ultrasonic sensors and offers the information of position and walking direction acquired from GPS module to the walking blind by voice. The tactile display device, located in the handle which is connected with the guide vehicle by cane, offers the processed obstacle information such as position, size, moving, shape of obstacle and safe path, etc. The psychophysical experiments for the threshold of perception and recognition ability of tactile stimulation are carried out by the estimation of the subject group. As a result the appropriate tactile stimulus intensity and frequency to recognize tactile stimulation effectively are discussed and derived.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.33-40
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• 2006

We present a new technological concept named RCP (Robotic Cellular Phone), which combines RT and CP. That is an ubiquitous robot. RCP consists of 3 sub-modules, RCP Mobility, RCP interaction, and RCP Integration. RCP Interaction is the main focus of this paper. It is an interactive emotion system which provides CP with multi-emotional signal receiving functionalities. RCP Interaction is linked with communication functions of CP in order to interface between CP and user through a variety of emotional models. It is divided into a tactile, an olfactory and a visual mode. The tactile signal receiving module is designed by patterns and beat frequencies which are made by mechanical-vibration conversion of the musical melody, rhythm and harmony. The olfactory signal receiving module is designed by switching control of perfume-injection nozzles which are able to give the signal receiving to the CP-called user through a special kind of smell according to the CP-calling user. The visual signal receiving module is made by motion control of DC-motored wheel-based system which can inform the CP-called user of the signal receiving through a desired motion according to the CP-calling user. In this paper, a prototype system is developed far multi-emotional signal receiving modes of CP. We describe an overall structure of the system and provide experimental results of the functional modules.

• 한국HCI학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.02a
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• pp.25-31
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• 2007

본 논문에서는 질감제시장치와 진동모터를 내장한 펜형 햅틱(haptic) 인터페이스에 대해서 기술한다. 본 연구의 목적은 다양한 장치에 적용할 수 있는 소형 질감제시 모듈을 제안하고, 개발된 모듈을 펜과 같은 모양의 인터페이스에 내장하여 그 성능을 검증하는데 있다. 본 연구의 수행을 위해 핀배열을 내장하고 있으며, 저전력, 저소음으로 동작하며, 수직방향으로 1mm이상의 변위를 일으키는 소형 질감제시 모듈을 개발하였다. 그리고 개발된 모듈은 PDA나 Tablet PC등에서 흔히 사용되는 스타일러스(Stylus)와 같은 펜모양의 인터페이스에 내장되었다. 펜형 인터페이스의 헤드부분에는 팬케익 모터를 내장하여 사용자에게 진동 촉감을 제공할 수 있도록 하였다. 개발된 펜형 인터페이스의 성능을 검증하기 위하여Mobile Tablet PC상에서 내장된 질감제시 모듈이 점자정보를 촉감으로 전달할 수 있는지에 관한 실험을 수행하였으며, 모든 실험은 그래픽 사용자 인터페이스(GUI)상에서 이루어졌다. 또한 모든 버튼 조작시 '클릭'하는 느낌을 재현하였다. 실험은 동시에 다양한 자극의 주파수와 시간의 변화 조건에서 시행되어 의도하는 촉감을 가장 잘 전달하는 자극방법에 관한 연구를 동시에 수행하였다. 또한 개발된 펜형 인터페이스를 이용하여 이미지와 함께 데이터 베이스화 되어있는 질감을 재현할 수 있는 방법에 관한 기초 연구를 수행하였다.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.2231-2236
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• 2005

CP (Cellular Phone) is currently one of the most attractive technologies and RT (Robot Technology) is also considered as one of the most promising next generation technology. We present a new technological concept named RCP (Robotic Cellular Phone), which combines RT and CP. RCP consists of 3 sub-modules, $RCP^{Mobility}$, $RCP^{Interaction}$, and $RCP^{Integration}$. $RCP^{Interaction}$ is the main focus of this paper. It is an interactive emotion system which provides CP with multi-emotional signal receiving functionalities. $RCP^{Interaction}$ is linked with communication functions of CP in order to interface between CP and user through a variety of emotional models. It is divided into a tactile, an olfactory and a visual mode. The tactile signal receiving module is designed by patterns and beat frequencies which are made by mechanical-vibration conversion of the musical melody, rhythm and harmony. The olfactory signal receiving module is designed by switching control of perfume-injection nozzles which are able to give the signal receiving to the CP-called user through a special kind of smell according to the CP-calling user. The visual signal receiving module is made by motion control of DC-motored wheel-based system which can inform the CP-called user of the signal receiving through a desired motion according to the CP-calling user. In this paper, a prototype system is developed for multi-emotional signal receiving modes of CP. We describe an overall structure of the system and provide experimental results of the functional modules.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.26 no.7
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• pp.881-887
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• 2016

In this study, the vibration-based tactile actuator for smart wear applications is presented by using piezoelectric ceramic transducers. The compact wireless actuation system is constructed with a high voltage piezoelectric amplifier, a microcontroller, wireless communication module, and rechargeable lithium-polymer battery. For the wireless communication between a hardware and an operator, the bluetooth-based wireless communication system is prepared and the user interface is provided via smart phone applications. From a series of experimental user studies, it is demonstrated that the proposed vibro-tactile actuator based on piezoelectric ceramic transducers can be effectively applied to smart wear applications.