• 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 Convergence for Information Technology
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• v.10 no.7
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• pp.223-231
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• 2020

Older drivers have an increased risk of accidents due to poor function, but they also develop self-regulation ability to check their own changes. Thus, information on whether the actual elderly driver responds to changes in driving ability and risk may provide a meaningful basis for the clinic and research of the elderly's driving ability assessment. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to provide basic data for the evaluation of elderly drivers by analyzing the driving risk self-perception characteristics in terms of driving behavior and function with Korean elderly drivers. A self-reporting assessment was conducted on 500 elderly drivers living in the community and the characteristics of driving risk perception were analyzed. As a result, it was confirmed that many elderly drivers are aware of the driving risk when their vision and hearing are impaired or when they find it difficult to adapt to changes in driving conditions. On the other hand, the characteristics of insensitive reactions to changes in medical health conditions, such as drug use or epilepsy, seizures, and loss of consciousness, were identified. The researcher hopes this study will contribute to the safety management of elderly drivers in Korea, where aging is accelerating.

• The Transactions of the Korea Information Processing Society
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.756-765
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• 2000

In this paper, a korean text to sign language translation system is designed and implemented for the hearing impaired people to learn letters and to have a conversation with normal people. We adopt the direct method for machine translation which uses morphological analysis and the dictionary search. And we define the necessary sign language dictionaries. Based on this processes, the system translate korean sentences to sign language moving picture. The proposed dictionaries are composed of the basic sign language dictionary, the compound sing language dictionary, and the resemble sign language dictionary. The basic sign language dictionary includes basic symbols and moving pictures of korean sign language. The compound sing language dictionary is composed of key-words of basic sign language. In addition, we offered the similar letters at the resemble sign language dictionary. The moving pictures of searched sign symbols are displayed on a screen in GIF formats by continuous motion of sign symbols or represented by the finger spelling based on the korean code analysis. The proposed system can provide quick sign language search and complement the lack of sign languages in the translation process by using the various sign language dictionaries which are characterized as korean sign language. In addition, to represent the sign language using GIF makes it possible to save the storage space of the sign language. In addition, to represent the sign language using GIF makes it possible to save storage space of the sign language dictionary.

• Neonatal Medicine
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.89-93
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• 2008

Duplication of chromosome 12p has been rarely reported and are thought to be associated with congenital malformations and impaired development. We report a baby boy born with multiple dysmorphic features and congenital malformations. His karyotype was 46,XY, add(12)(p13.3). He has suffered from intrauterine growth restriction at birth. He showed abnormal cranio-facial findings such as microcephaly, hypognathia, clepft palate and low set ear. He presented with absence of uvula, micropenis and rocker bottom features of both feet, congenital heart disease, poor corticomedullary differentiation of kidney, and sensorineuronal hearing loss. We have been follow up him for seizure disorder and delayed development at out patient department.

• Proceedings of the Korea Information Processing Society Conference
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• 2015.10a
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• pp.1019-1022
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• 2015

사회적 약자인 청각장애인들의 수화통역 서비스가 대체로 만족스럽게 제공되고 있지 않다. 또한 청각 장애인수 대비 수화통역가의 부족과 일반인과의 즉각적인 소통이 어려워 일상생활에 불편함을 느끼는 청각장애인들이 많다. 이의 문제점을 착안하여 본 연구에서는 청각장애인들이 휴대할 수 있는 수화 통역기를 개발하고자 한다. 청각장애인들의 손동작을 인식할 수 있는 3D센서 립모션(Leap-Motion)을 통해 수화를 인식한다. 립모션 센서와 안드로이드 스마트폰 및 태블릿과 연결하여 손 데이터 값을 분석했다. 분석한 손 데이터 값과 특정 지화(자음, 모음)와 간단한 인사말의 수화동작을 취할 때, 트래킹되는 데이터 값을 비교하여 수화를 인식하고 수화와 인식된 지화의 자음과 모음을 글자로 완성시켜, 텍스트와 음성으로 출력한다. 또한 립모션이 부착된 하드케이스 안에 스마트기기 탈착이 가능한 실용성 있는 수화통역기 제품 개발에 대한 연구를 목표로 하고 있다.

• Journal of Korea Multimedia Society
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• v.23 no.12
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• pp.1464-1475
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• 2020

Due to the spread of COVID-19, the online lecture has become more prevalent. However, it was found that a lot of students and professors are experiencing lack of communication. This study is therefore designed to improve interactive communication between professors and students in real-time online lectures. To do so, we explore deep learning approaches for automatic recognition of students' facial expressions and classification of their understanding into 3 classes (Understand / Neutral / Not Understand). We use 'BlazeFace' model for face detection and 'ResNet-GRU' model for facial expression recognition (FER). We name this entire process 'Degree of Understanding (DoU)' algorithm. DoU algorithm can analyze a multitude of students collectively and present the result in visualized statistics. To our knowledge, this study has great significance in that this is the first study offers the statistics of understanding in lectures using FER. As a result, the algorithm achieved rapid speed of 0.098sec/frame with high accuracy of 94.3% in CPU environment, demonstrating the potential to be applied to real-time online lectures. DoU Algorithm can be extended to various fields where facial expressions play important roles in communications such as interactions with hearing impaired people.

• 한국노년학
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.443-458
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• 2020

Aim: This study investigated the association between leisure activities and cognitive impairment in Korean community-dwelling older adults. Methods: Among participants of the 2017 National Survey of Older Koreans, 10,055 (male=4,277, female=5,778) were included in this cross-sectional study. To better identify the association between late-life cognition and leisure activities, individual leisure activities were categorized into 3 types including productive, consumptive, and unclassified activities. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to assess the association between participation in leisure activities and cognitive impairment when controlling for possible covariates evidenced by previous studies. Results: Male participants were more likely to be cognitively impaired than female ones with significant differences in all the covariates. After controlling for confounding variables, involvement in productive leisure activities was found to be associated with cognitive function in both male and female groups, along with age, educational level, depressive symptoms, subjective hearing problems, and occupational status. Conclusion: Involvement in productive leisure activities might be associated with decreased risk of cognitive impairment in later life. Appropriate strategies to encourage older adults to participate in productive leisure activities should be established to help them maintain their cognitive function.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.441-452
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• 2012

Recently, various researches have been attempted to effectively display pseudo-aural senses to the hearing-impaired or the deaf, using vibro-tactile stimulus as well as visual sense. Particularly, it is reported that as complementary senses to support the visual sense, tactile senses displayed by either speakers or vibration motors improve the reality sense significantly but do not nearly improve the emotional sense. Thus, in this study, the thermal sense is selected as another complementary sense to support the pseudo-aural sense display and it is investigated whether the thermal sense could generate a pseudo-aural sense or not. For this purpose, a thermal display module which could effectively display the desired thermal sense is implemented. Then, experiments have been conducted to subjects, which provide them with various types of stimuli combined with the aural, the vibrotactile, and the thermal stimuli along with the visual information. It can be confirmed, through statistical analysis on the data collected from experiments, that subjects could feel a pseudo-thermal sense closer to the real thermal sense which the normal subject feel from both the visual and the aural information, particularly either i) with the thermal stimulus along with the visual information or ii) with both the thermal and the vibrotactile stimuli along with the visual information than only with the visual information. Conclusively, it can be confirmed that the thermal stimulus applied to the skin of the subjects could play a role of effectively displaying pseudo-aural sense related to the thermal sense, as an complementary media for the pseudo-aural display.

• International Journal of Railway
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• v.1 no.4
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• pp.143-148
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• 2008

This paper is the output of a collaborative European project concerning the barrier free accessibility for disabled persons to regional and long distance trains in Europe. Disabled people represent around 13% of the population in Europe. This is approximately 63 million people. The range of disabilities includes people with reduced mobility including wheel chair users, viewing and hearing impaired people and other forms of impairment. Improving accessibility aims at contributing to the provision of public transport services to all citizens in an equitable way. The purpose of the project was to analyse and to evaluate the existing solutions at selected European railways for all required modules at the entrance (doors, information and safety solutions), to derive a design concept, to develop a mock-up in meeting the needs of rail travellers with the above mentioned impairments and to test it with user groups. The project also aims at deriving components for the determination of standards. The EUPAX Design Mock-up test was performed to verify the advantages of the layout of the train segment including the different modules such as access area (including the access door, gaps between platform and train as well as boarding aid devices), entrance vestibule, information systems inside and outside the train, emergency facilities, toilet with all conveniences and the additional test arrangements regarding push buttons, steps and emergency equipment. For this purpose a questionnaire was developed for the assessment of the EUPAX segment and the additional test arrangements. With the help of this questionnaire it was possible to execute a quantitative and qualitative evaluation. During three test phases 67 experts and handicapped persons from 6 countries have evaluated the Industrial Design mock-up based on this questionnaire. The test group covered persons from North (Denmark) to the South (Italy) and from the West (Spain) to the Middle of Europe (Germany). This is especially important for the generalization (harmonisation) of the results for all European countries. According to COST 335 the information for people with reduced mobility should be clear, concise, accurate and timely. So that all information can be received from persons, they must be transferred on at least two of the three possible ways (acoustical, visual, tactile), a so called "2-sense-principle". Based on the results ergonomic specifications/ solutions for the ergonomic design of the access area, the acoustic, visual and tactile information and the emergency devices including the emergency communication system were developed, related to the benefiting passenger groups.

• The Journal of Korea Institute of Information, Electronics, and Communication Technology
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.512-520
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• 2019

It is quite useful to represent speeches visually for learners who study foreign languages as well as the hearing impaired who cannot directly hear speeches, and a number of researches have been presented in the literature. They remain, however, at the level of representing the characteristics of speeches using colors or showing the changing shape of lips and mouth using the animation-based representation. As a result of such approaches, those methods cannot tell the users how far their pronunciations are away from the standard ones, and moreover they make it technically difficult to develop such a system in which users can correct their pronunciation in an interactive manner. In order to address these kind of drawbacks, this paper proposes a speech visualization model based on the relative distance between the user's speech and the standard one, furthermore suggests actual implementation directions by applying the proposed model to the visualization of Korean vowels. The method extract three formants F1, F2, and F3 from speech signals and feed them into the Kohonen's SOM to map the results into 2-D screen and represent each speech as a pint on the screen. We have presented a real system implemented using the open source formant analysis software on the speech of a Korean instructor and several foreign students studying Korean language, in which the user interface was built using the Javascript for the screen display.