• International journal of advanced smart convergence
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.110-118
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• 2018

This study aimed to examine the postures and behaviors of high school sophomores in Gyeongnam Province in daily life and the relations between back pain and sitting postures, and to identify undesirable behaviors and postures in daily life, and the following conclusions were obtained. The relation between back pain and cupping the chin in one of the two hands in rotation or sitting with the legs crossed or sitting on a chair with the back and hip not leaning against the backrest was statistically significant (p<0.05). The results above indicated that high school sophomores in South Korea spend most of the day sitting on a chair in school and that undesirable behaviors using one side of the body, such as cupping the chin in one of the two hands in rotation or sitting with the legs crossed, cause back pain. In addition, those who sit on a chair with the back and hip leaning against the backrest experienced less back pain than those who did not, and exercises after school were found to be helpful to prevent back pain.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.202-205
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• 2010

When we render 3D sound images using headphones or speakers, the main key of this technology is the Head-related transfer function (HRTF) database. Even though there are various HRTF databases, they have some drawbacks such as detrimental effects caused by imperfect measuring environment and insufficient measurement points. Moreover there is no database with Korean subjects. We are planning to develop the HRTF database for Korean. As a first step to establish the HRTF database aimed at Korean, the new HRTF measurement system with minimized aforementioned drawbacks is designed. In this paper, the newly designed HRTF measurement system is introduced and the overall effects caused by the diffraction of the apparatus, especially the headrest and backrest of the chair, are analyzed. The backrest of the chair does not distort the HRTFs significantly while the headrest makes significant distortion on the HRTFs and it could have significant effects on directional perception. We determined acceptable head rotation angle and head position of the subject for accurate HRTF measurement based on the experiments with B&K HATS. We conclude that the 3 degrees of the head rotation and the 1.5cm front/back/left/right shift of the head do not distort the HRTFs significantly.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.314-320
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• 2019

Background: Sitting posture may be related to risk factors, including inadequate weight-bearing support, particularly when maintained for long periods. Considering that body weight is loaded in a closed support system composed of the seat, backrest, floor and working surface, the aims of the present study were to describe the development of an ergonomic sitting workstation to continuously record weight-bearing at the seat, chair, backrest, work surface, and floor and to test its measurement properties: reproducibility, criterion-related validity, and sensitivity. Methods: Rigid bodies (1 to 30 kg) and participant weights were recorded to evaluate the workstation measurement properties. Results: Rigid body tests showed variation values less than 0.050 kg on reproducibility test and errors below 5% of measured value on criterion validity tests. Participant tests showed no statistically significant differences between repeated measures ($p{\geq}0.40$), errors were less than 2% of participant weights an sensitivity presented statistically significant changes (p = 0.007). Conclusion: The sitting workstation proposed showed to be reliable, valid and sensitive for use in future ergonomic studies to evaluate the sitting posture.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.527-533
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• 2010

The feeling that is evoked when products are handled has become increasingly important in the design of products primarily used by humans. In the traditional product design process, prototypes are built several times in order to evaluate the feeling evoked during use. However, these design processes can be optimized by adopting a haptic simulator that can serve as a prototype. The design method based on the use of the haptic simulator is called haptics-aided design (HAD), which is the main subject of this paper. Here, a new HAD method that can be effectively used to design a custom-made chair is proposed. A haptic simulator, which is composed of a haptic chair and an intuitive graphical user interface, was developed. The simulator can adjust the impedance of the backrest and seat pan of a chair in real time. The haptic chair was used instead of real prototypes in order to evaluate the comfort of the initially designed seat pan and backrest on the basis of their stiffness and damping values. It was shown that the HAD method can be effectively used to design a custom-made chair and can be extended to other product design processes.

• Physical Therapy Korea
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.46-55
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• 2012

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of the two different types of chairs on trapezius muscle activation during dictation tasks. Seventeen university students, each of whom were within ${\pm}1$ standard deviation of the mean Korean standard body size, voluntarily participated in this study. Surface electromyography was used to collect electrical signals from both the upper and lower trapezius muscles. Amplitude Probability Distribution Function (APDF) was performed to analyze the muscle activity. The findings of this study were 1) The backrest-point height of the auditorium chair and the height, length and width of the connected desk were shorter than what was suggested by the KS. Another difference was that the auditorium chair had a bigger angle of the backrest compared to the classroom chair. 2) Regarding within-subject effect the sole statistically significant difference was found between activation of the upper trapezius muscle. The upper trapezius muscle's %RVC in the APDF 10th-50th-90th percentile was statistically higher for participants sitting in the auditorium chair than for participants sitting in the classroom chair (p<.05). 3) There was an interaction effect between the 'two chair-types' and the 'two muscle-sides' in the APDF 10th-50th percentile (p<.05). 4) There was an interaction effect between the 'two chair-types' and the 'three gaze-direction' in the APDF 90th percentile (p<.05). The findings of this study indicated that maintaining a writing posture for a prolonged period of time in an auditorium chair significantly increased the left upper trapezius muscle activation compared to a classroom chair.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.389-396
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• 2013

Objective: The ride qualities of the six passenger cars were evaluated in 4 subjects on the highway and uneven road. The relation between vibration with driving velocity and driving posture were also investigated separately. Background: Ride comfort plays an important role in the vehicle design. Vibration is the one of the principal components associated with ride comfort. Method: The acceleration of the foot, hip and back were measured using B&K accelerometers in this study. The velocity of the passenger cars was maintained at a constant speed of 80km/h on the highway and 40km/h on the uneven road. For evaluating the effects of driving velocity and driving posture on vehicle's vibration level, separate experiments were performed on the highway with 5 different vehicle speeds and 5 different backrest angles, respectively. Results: The overall ride value of the luxury car showed the best result while the smaller car showed the worst value on the highway. On the uneven road the overall ride value level was increased 75~98%. All the vehicles had the SEAT value less than 1. Faster the velocity lowers the SEAT value. The ride quality in terms of vibration gets worst when the backrest angle increased. Conclusion: The smaller car had a first mode at the higher frequency and showed higher vibration level. SEAT value was mostly affected by the seat property not by vehicle. We ranked the luxury car seat had a best vibration reduction quality than others based on SEAT values. When the driving velocity increased, the overall ride values were increased proportionally and the SEAT values were somewhat decreased. Application: Evaluation of whole-body vibration in the passenger car.

• Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.13-17
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• 2006

The planocentric gear, known as wobble mechanism, has been used for speed reducing mechanism as an ingenious mechanism. The modem application can be found in the backrest adjusting mechanism of a vehicle reclinable seat, fluid pumps and aircraft hoist and winches. Higher speed reduction ratios, high load capacity, lower weight, and compactness are the main advantages of this gear. This paper presents velocity and static force analysis to investigate the friction lock of the planocentric gear. The rectilinear tooth profile is used to maximize the speed reduction ratio. The equivalent linkage system is used for the analysis of instantaneous motion. As the results, the transmission efficiency of the planocentric gear is found and the friction lock of the system is determined for the friction coefficients of journals. A numerical example that illustrates the developed analysis is presented.

• Journal of the Korea Furniture Society
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.13-21
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• 1999

All chairs are uncomfortable in the long run and some chairs become uncomfortable more rapidly than others. In a particular chair, some people feel more uncomfortable than others. Comfort will depend upon the interaction of chair, user, and task characteristics. In this study, we intended to design a comfortable office chair by investigating anthropometric and biomechanical aspects for Koreans. We determine the design dimensions by analysis the anthropometric data. With these body parameters, we determined the design dimensions such as seat height, seat depth, seat width, seat backrest width, etc. This research, hopefully contributes to the development of ergonomic chair and improvement of the chair design technologies.

• Journal of KSNVE
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.269-279
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• 2000

This paper deals with the development of biomechanical model on a seat with backrest support in the vertical direction. Four kinds of biomechanical models are discussed to depict human motion. One DOF model mainly describes z-axis motion of hip, two and three DOF models describe z-axis of hip and head, and while nine DOF model suggested in this study represents more motion than the otehr model. Three kinds of experiments were executed to validate these models. The first one was to measure the acceleration of the floor and hip surface in z-axis, the back surface in x-axis, and the head in z-axis under exciter. From this measurement, the transmissiblities of each subject were obtained. The second one was the measurement of the joint position by the device having pointer and the measurement of contact position between the human body and the seat by body pressure distribution. The third one was the measurement of the seat and back cushion by dummy. The biomechanical model parameters were obtained by matching the simulated to the experimental transmissiblities at the hip, back, and head.

• Proceedings of the Korean Operations and Management Science Society Conference
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• 1994.04a
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• pp.85-92
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• 1994

본 연구에서는 작업용 의자를 설계하고 평가하기 위한 한국인의 좌판과 등판의 형태 (contour) 모형을 제시하고자 한다. 신장, 앉은키, 몸무게, L5폭, T7폭 등을 측정하여 통계적으로 분석한 결과, 앉은키와 AC폭, 몸무게와 L5폭은 상관관계가 있는 것으로 밝혀졌다. 따라서, 사람의 좌판, 등판 접촉 형태를 측정하기 위해서 몸무게와 앉은키에 따라 각각 세 그룹으로 나누어 총 아홉 그룹으로 분류하였다. 자체 제작된 좌판과 등판의 접촉형태 측정기를 사용하여 각 그룹별로 측정점에 대한 계측을 통하여 형태자료를 수집하고, 통계분석을 통하여 한국인의 형태모형을 추출하고, 컴퓨터 그래픽을 이용하여 시각적 평가를 가능하게 하였다. 이를 통하여 작업용 의자의 성능 및 안락도 향상을 위한 체계적 접근방법을 제시하고, 평가에 있어서는 정량적인 척도를 제공할 수 있을 것이다.