• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.33 no.11
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• pp.1326-1331
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• 2009

The sensor data measured by the legged robot are used to recognize the physical environment or information that controls the robot's posture. Therefore, a robot's ambulation can be advanced with the use of such sensing information. For the precise control of a robot, highly accurate sensor data are required, but most sensors are expensive and are exposed to excessive load operation in the field. The seriousness of these problems will be seen if the prototype's practicality and mass productivity, which are closely related to the unit cost of production and maintenance, will be considered. In this paper, the use of a virtual sensor technology was suggested to address the aforementioned problems, and various ways of applying the theory to a walking robot obtained through training with an actual sensor, and of various hardware information, were presented. Finally, the possibility of the replacement of the ground reaction force sensor of legged robot was verified.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.11 no.11
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• pp.4087-4094
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• 2010

The sensor data which is measured by Quadruped robot is utilized to recognize the physical environment or other information and to control the posture and walking of robot system. In order to control the robot precisely, high accuracy of sensor data is required, most of these sensors however, belongs to expensive and low-durable products. Moreover, these are exposed excessive load operation in a field condition if it is applied to field robot system. This issue becomes more serious one when the robot system is manufactured as a mass product. As in this context, this study suggests a virtual sensor technology to alternate or assist the main sensor system. This scheme is realized by using back-propagation algorithm of neural network theory, and the quality of estimated sensor data could be improved through the algorithmic and hardware based treatments. This study performs the various trial to identify the effective parameters which effect to the quality and reliability of estimated sensor data and tries to show the possibility of proposed methodology.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Physical Medicine
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.103-113
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• 2019

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to determine if virtual reality-based exercise was effective in balance, gait, and falls efficacy in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). METHODS: Thirty patients with PD were assigned randomly to the experimental (n=15) or control groups (n=15). The experimental group performed virtual reality-based exercise and the control group underwent conventional physical therapy for 30minutes, five times per week for four weeks. A force platform system, the Korean version of the Berg Balance Scale (K-BBS), the six-minute walking test (6MWT), and the Korean Version of the Falls Efficacy Scale (K-FES) were used to evaluate balance, gait, and falls efficacy. Wilcoxon signed-rank test and Mann-Whitney U test were used to examine the within- and between-group differences after training, respectively. RESULTS: Changes in the K-BBS score (p<.001) and fall efficacy (p<.01), following the intervention were significantly greater in the experimental group than in the control group whereas significant group difference were not observed for the anterior-posterior and mediolateral postural sway lengths. The change in the ground reaction force (p<.001) and 6MWT values (p<.05) were significantly greater after intervention in patients in the experimental group than in the control group, whereas a significant group difference was not observed for the step and stride lengths. CONCLUSION: This study indicates that virtual reality-based exercise is an effective intervention for improving balance, gait, and fall efficacy in patients with PD.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.14 no.11
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• pp.1189-1195
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• 2008

We introduce a MEMS-based pedestrian dead reckoning (PDR) system. A walking navigation algorithm for pedestrians is presented and map-matching algorithm for the navigation system based on dead reckoning (DR) is proposed. The PDR is equipped on the human body and provides the position information of pedestrians. And this is able to be used in ubiquitous sensor network (USN), U-hearth monitoring system, virtual reality (VR) and etc. The PDR detects a step using a novel technique and simultaneously estimates step length. Also an azimuth of the pedestrian is calculated using a fluxgate which is the one of magnetometers. Map-matching algorithm can be formulated to integrate the positioning data with the digital road network data. Map-matching algorithm not only enables the physical location to be identified from navigation system but also improves the positioning accuracy. However most of map-matching algorithms which are developed previously are for the car navigation system (CNS). Therefore they are not appropriate to implement to pedestrian navigation system based on DR system. In this paper, we propose walking navigation system and map-matching algorithm for PDR.

• The Journal of The Korea Institute of Intelligent Transport Systems
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.15-27
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• 2022

An omnidirectional VR treadmill is a highly-immersive walking simulator that allows identical body movements, such as walking, running, and sitting. However, the operation difficulty of an omnidirectional VR treadmill may cause data reliability problems. Therefore, this study aims to verify the effectiveness of a VR treadmill by comparing the ability to orient in the real and virtual worlds spatially. For this purpose, a rotating and searching path experiment was conducted with participants. This experiment showed that there was no statistically significant difference in the ability of the participants to orient in the real and virtual worlds spatially. In addition, the omnidirectional VR treadmill requires an adaptation time for the users due to the difficulty in the treadmill operation. However, there was no significant difference in the difficulty felt by the participants according to the adaptation time. Hence, these findings supported the possibility of collecting realistic walking data without safety concerns through an omnidirectional VR treadmill. Furthermore, this treadmill could be used in future research to solve problems directly related to pedestrian safety, such as the interaction between vehicles and pedestrians.

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.181-190
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• 2008

This study intended to provide the inherent characteristics of weak pedestrian including walking speed and perception-reaction time and to propose pedestrian signal timing models considering those characteristics. To collect the relevant data, field studies were conducted in virtual crosswalk environments. Walking speed were found to be 0.63 m/s and 0.57 m/s for children and the elderly, respectively. However, the elderly had higher perception-reaction time than children. By considering these characteristics, two pedestrian signal timing models were developed. Sensitivity analysis results showed that the models can produce reasonable ranges of pedestrian signal time. The data in this paper can be used for future references, and the mobility of weak pedestrian may be improved by applying the models suggested in this paper.

• Journal of Industrial Convergence
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.42-53
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• 2020

This study approached the elderly in Korea with a systematic review to find out the effect of virtual reality program arbitration on balance, which the evidence for the virtual reality program is provided. Total of 94 papers were searched through the database Nuri Media (DBpia), Scholarship (earticle), Korean Studies Information (KISS), National Digital Science Library (NDSL), the Korea Educational Research and Information Service (RISS), Kyobo Book Scholar (RISS), and Hakjisa New Thesis on Literature Selection using PRISMA flow-chart from January 2005 to May 2020 based on the final literature selection process and analysis. The quality level of the literature was found to be three volumes (50.0%) of the base level I, one (16.7%) of the II, and two of the III (33.3%). The most common type of virtual reality program was Wii-fit balance of 4 (66.7%), and the effect of virtual reality program arbitration was significant overall through evaluation tools for balance and walking ability. This is expected to effectively apply the virtual reality program to the elderly. In addition, since clinical application basis has been provided, further studies applying various virtual reality program interventions need to be addressed.

• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.321-328
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• 2016

In this paper, we propose a walk status method which can be fused with conventional walk intention method to improve convenience of an electric assistive walking system for elder people with restricted walking capabilities. The system uses a handlebar as a trigger and regards grabbing a handlebar as expressing will to walk. And the system uses a user's linear velocity and angular velocity as linear velocity and angular velocity of a system, checked by laser range finder. To achieve this, we propose a method to find a virtual central point of a human body by estimating a central point between two legs. The experiments are carried out by comparing user's linear velocity and angular velocity, and system's linear velocity and angular velocity. The results show that the error of linear velocity and angular velocity between a user and a system are 1% and 2.77%, which means the linear velocity and angular velocity of a user can be applied to a system. And it is confirmed that the proposed fusion method can prevent a user from being dragged by an assistive walking system or a malfunction caused by lack of experience

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.271-286
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• 2020

This study evaluated designs via the consumers' function and design preferences survey for using product design images, virtual avatar wearing images and product explanations that identified consumers' function and design preferences for knee protection pads as well as to develop movement assistive knee pad designs. We developed Design A for men and Design B for women. For Design A, the front of the knee supports muscles and alleviates pain with a hole. Mesh material with good ventilation was applied to enhance wearing comfort. The color was achromatic for a modern style, and the hook fastener and loops enabled easy wear and removal of the pad while controlling size and pressure strength. For Design B, taping details seamlessly support muscles in the knee area with fabrics less than 0.1 cm thick and with long sleeves in the diverse sizes. The design's satisfaction assessment showed that potential consumers were satisfied with Design A and Design B for overall design and functional features. Over 77% wanted to use/wear and purchase designs; in addition, over 78% expected it would help with walking and relieve knee pain. The results can be helpful for designers when deciding designs for manufacturing and commercializing kneepad products.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Computer Information Conference
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• 2022.07a
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• pp.549-552
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• 2022

본 논문에서는 가상현실에서 헤드 마운티드 디스플레이(Head mounted display, HMD) 사용자와 Non-HMD 사용자에게 사용자의 걷기, 뛰기, 절름발이 움직임을 몰입감 있게 표현하기 위한 새로운 가상현실(VR, Virtual Reality) 인터페이스를 제안한다. 가상현실에서는 몰입감을 높이기 위해 시각적 감각을 활용한 HMD와 사용자의 자세나 움직임을 추적하는 장비를 활용하지만, 일반적인 사용자들에게 HMD 보급은 많이 이루어져 있지 않으며, 비용적인 측면과 멀미로 인해 가상현실 콘텐츠에 몰입하기 어렵다. 본 논문에서는 효율적으로 몰입도를 높이고 비용적인 부담을 줄여주기 위해 아두이노를 활용한 새로운 보행 인터페이스 장치를 제안한다. 보행 인터페이스 장치는 사용자의 다리 가속도 정보를 기반으로 사용자의 상태 변화에 맞게 패턴을 설정하여 사용자의 걷기, 뛰기, 절름발이 움직임을 통해 사용자 캐릭터의 움직임을 제어하고 표현할 수 있는 새로운 결과를 보여준다.