• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.19 no.11
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• pp.167-173
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• 2014

A white cane is used by many people who are blind or visually impaired. The studies and developments in the field of smart electronic white cane have been progressed to improve walking safety of the visually handicapped person. In this paper, we describe a situation-awareness white cane which support and guide walking of the visually handicapped person by giving information of surrounding situation through connection of a white cane and a mobile device. There are easily accessible buttons in the situation-awareness white cane. These buttons is connected with the mobile device by blue-tooth, so by pushing these buttons, the visually handicapped person can receive sound-guidance. As a result, the visually handicapped person can walk more safely by getting more information of situation.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.23 no.8
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• pp.101-106
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• 2018

Most people with visual impairments can not use both hands freely because they carry a cane. And unnecessary contact with people around you during walking can occur. Other guides include guide dogs, but the price and maintenance cost are expensive and difficult to manage. In this paper, we propose a smart glove, which prevents unnecessary contact when blind people use the cane, detects the obstacle ahead by using the ultrasonic sensor, and informs the presence of the obstacle by using the servo motor. In addition, the electrostatic proximity touch module on the fingers executes a specific application of the smart phone connected by Bluetooth when the finger touches each other. It is designed to allow you to use text or phone calls when you are lost or in an emergency. The results of this study will be used as a tool to provide a more convenient life for the visually impaired.

• Journal of Service Research and Studies
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.186-200
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• 2023

This study aims to improve the usability of the white cane, which is walking equipment that most local visually impaired people use and carry when going out, and to contribute to the prevention of safety accidents and the walking rights of visually impaired people by providing improvement and resolution measures for the problems identified. Also, this study is a study on the visually impaired, primarily targeting the 1st to 2nd degree visually impaired people, who cannot go out on their own without walking equipment such as a white cane, corresponding to 20% among approximately 250,000 blind and low vision people in the Korean population. In the study process, the concept has been developed from the user's point of view in order that the white cane becomes a real help in the walking step of the visually impaired and the improvement of usability of the white cane, the main walking equipment for the visually impaired, are done by problem identification through the Double Diamond Model of Design Thinking (Empathize → Define → Ideate → Prototype → Test (verify)). As a result of the investigation in the process of Empathy, a total of five issues was synthesized, including an increase in the proportion of the visually impaired people, an insufficient workforce situation to help all the visually impaired, an improvement and advancement of assistive devices essential for the visually impaired, problems of damage, illegal occupation, demolition, maintenance about braille blocks, making braille block paradigms for the visually impaired and for everyone. In Ideate and Prototype steps, situations derived from brainstorming were grouped and the relationship were made through the KJ method, and specific situations and major causes were organized to establish the direction of the concept. The derived solutions and major functions are defined in four categories, and representative situations requiring solutions and major functions are organized into two user scenarios. Ideas were visualized by arranging the virtual Persona and Customer Journey Map according to the situation and producing a prototype through 3D modeling. Finally, in the evaluation, the final concept derived is a device such a smart cane for guidance for the visually impaired as ① a smart cane emphasizing portability + ② compatibility with other electronic devices + ③ a product with safety and convenience.

• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.147-156
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• 2017

The white cane, walking assistive device of visually impaired person, has disadvantages for acquiring the information by contacting obstacles directly and detecting low obstacle on the ground. Recently, new devices have been developing to solve these problems, but these were not widely used due to high price and appearance. Therefore, in this study, we developed two types of walking assistive shoes which were manufactured with infrared sensors, pressure sensors and vibrating motors. Two types of shoes were classified with single sensor (SS) and double sensor (DS) type according to the number of infrared sensor. To evaluate the effectiveness, we compared required time and number of collisions during walking with walking assistive shoes and white cane on obstacle area. As the results, required time was increased than white cane while number of collisions was decreased when walking with developed walking assistive shoes. In addition, required time and number of collisions was more reduced when using walking assistive device than white cane. Therefore, we suggests that developed walking assistive shoes can a great help to provide safe walking condition and reducing time to adapt new types of walking assistive shoes.

• Journal of KIISE:Software and Applications
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.291-297
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• 2009

This paper introduces an electronic travel aid, named SmartWand, which detects obstacles using a ultrasonic sensor. In addition to obstacle detection, the SmartWand senses color information of objects and the environmental brightness. It is designed to be attached to a ordinary white cane in order to detect the obstacles at head-hight which cannot be covered by the cane. We have improved the first version of the SmartWand based on a user evaluation. The second version is much lighter and smaller than the previous one. It has been enhanced by two new functions. The SmartWand eliminates impact errors due to tapping the ground using a moving average filtering algorithm and restricts the detection range to the path in the moving direction using an acceleration sensor. We have tested these functions in various environments to determine the parameters for these functions.

• 한국HCI학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.02a
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• pp.251-255
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• 2008

We have developed an electronic aids, called SmartWand, which can help visually impaired people walk safely and tell them an object's color and environmental brightness SmartWand can inform visually impaired people of the dangerous obstacles around which they can't notice by the white cane such as a large panel with supporting poles on the street. Especially we have lmproved the previous version of SmartWand by reflecting the result of user study.

• IEMEK Journal of Embedded Systems and Applications
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.157-164
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• 2015

In this paper we propose a walking aid system for blind people by exploiting a haptic feedback equipment. The proposed system is a form of haptic feedback cane which is composed of MCU, communication module, sensing module and actuator. The proposed system recognizes obstacles around the blind by using ultrasonic sensors in the sensing module. Moreover, the system generates feedback information about the detected obstacle and then notifies the information to the blind through the actuator. The blind can notice the direction of the detected obstacle with the haptic feedback equipment and vibration motor. Futhermore, the proposed system controls a nearby IoT(Internet of Things) system by utilizing push buttons through the ZigBee communication. Finally, the blind can easily decide the direction of the obstacle without interference of terrain feature by using the proposed system.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.411-421
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• 2000

Black froak coat, white shirts, top hat and cane has been the symbol of gentlemen in 19th and early of 20th century. The pattern invented by Savile Row in London prevailed whole England. Such a pattern has been the standard form for two hundred years all over the word, although it was replaced with a functionalism which developed in Italy and America at the end of 20th century. The clothes of gentlemen was developed by several factors ; English people respect a tradition. The clothes was practical, since the weather in England was bad. The success of Industrial Revolution made England wealthy. Various special clothes in sports, for example, riding, criket, golf and tennis also contribute the modern gentlemen clothes with advance tailoring technique. The change of gentlemenship with social environment, from Regency dandy, Romantic gentlemen to Muscular Christianity, was studied. Idial gentlemenship and development its clothes which is now the standard of modern men's wear also studied.

• Proceedings of the Korea Inteligent Information System Society Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.545-549
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• 2007

시각 장애인의 보행 보조 장치는 보통 "흰 지팡이"라고 부르며, 이는 이동권 보장을 위한 최소한의 보조 장치이다. 본 논문에서는 시각 장애인에게 주변의 장애물 인식과 현재위치를 알려주어 보행에 도움을 줄 수 있는 장치의 설계 및 제작에 과하여 기술한다. 전체 시스템은 크게 두 부분으로 구성된다. 하는 주변의 장애물 인식을 위한 PSD 센서와 GPS 수신기, Bluetooth 모듈이 내장되어 있는 지팡이 부분이고, 다른 하나는 지팡이 부분에서 획득된 정보의 처리 및 장애인에게 여러 가지 정보 제공을 목적으로 하는 휴대장치이다. 이러한 장치를 통해 시각 장애인의 이동권 확보와 사회 활동권 등 복지 증진에 도움을 주고자 한다.

• International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.320-328
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• 2021

As the number of visually impaired people steadily increases, interest in independent walking is also increasing. However, there are various inconveniences in the independent walking of the visually impaired at present, reducing the quality of life of the visually impaired. The white cane, which is an existing walking aid for the visually impaired, has difficulty in recognizing upper obstacles and obstacles outside the effective distance. In addition, it is inconvenient to cross the street because the sound signal to help the visually impaired cross the crosswalk is lacking or damaged. These factors make it difficult for the visually impaired to walk independently. Therefore, we propose the design of an embedded system that provides traffic light recognition through object recognition technology, voice guidance using TTS, and upper obstacle recognition through ultrasonic sensors so that blind people can realize safe and high-quality independent walking.