• Korean Institute of Interior Design Journal
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.248-257
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• 2012

The demand of elderly care facilities due to aging population has been increased and the trend of developed countries implies the necessity of innovate approach for elderly care in Korea. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the flexible elderly housing alternative which has been introduced showing adaptability and small scale. This elderly housing alternative was designed to fulfill the condition of residential facilities for various aging phases from the independent elderly to dependent elderly. The workshop method was used for pre-evaluation of the flexible elderly housing alternative from the viewpoint of administrators, care givers and the elderly. The pre-evaluation is to estimate the facility before finalizing the design so that it facilitates more effective and suitable plan by reducing the trial and error beforehand, unlike the post-evaluation. Major responses of plans were positive and the needs for improvement about some concerns were revealed. Thus, relevant aspects of architectural drawings were amended according to workshop participants' needs and features that require to be reflected during further planning procedures were also improved. The result of this research will develop the flexible elderly housing alternative and contribute to foster environment for the elderly as well.

• Korean Institute of Interior Design Journal
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.62-71
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• 2007

Due to the shortage of elderly care services in urban areas, multi-functional welfare facilities are proven to be very effective for delivering various service needs of elderly in Japan. Introduction of new longterm care policy for elderly in Korea would change many aspects of elderly care service facilities. Especially elderly home care services like adult daycare centers will expand drastically after beginning of elderly longterm care insurance. The purpose of this research is to study and analyze multi-functional welfare facilities in Japan focusing on the types of day service in those facilities. Planning of daycare centers in multi-functional welfare facilities for the elderly can be classified to 8 types. Those types are daycare centers with senior housing, longterm care insurance facilities, senior centers, small multi-function facility, medical facilities, educational facilities, community facilities and general housing projects. Each type has different benefits for the networking of services for the elderly. Design of daycare centers in multi-functional welfare facilities have distinctive features in entrance and user approach, space allocation and circulation planning. The study of daycare centers and multi-function planning should be followed to make better home care environments for the elderly in Korea.

• 한국HCI학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.02a
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• pp.295-300
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• 2009

This paper presents a context-aware information service system in public places that have complex processes, for the disabled and the elderly. The system infers context of a user which is derived from the user's demand, then it informs to the user -what to do, where to go-according to the context. Our system gets user's context from sensor data and informations from the local information system. The system provides more suitable information with a knowledge model, which organizes location and process data coordinately. The information is provided personally to the user, with mobile devices.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Integrative Medicine
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.83-92
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• 2018

Purpose : The purpose of this study was to develop an index of usability that reflects the needs and characteristics of the elderly. The usability index is used primarily to assess issues in the usability of a product. Methods : In this study, 22 items for mobile toilet usability index were developed by consulting with 12 elderly users, 6 caregivers, and 12 experts. The usability evaluation index was intended to increase reliability through preliminary and main evaluations. In addition, the validity of the items used as the usability evaluation index was verified to prove that the index is effective for the evaluation. Result : The usability index is a welfare tool developed by gathering data from various sources such as previous studies dealing with usability evaluation, characteristics of users, range of use, and environment of product use. Conclusion : The development of the usability index for mobile toilets was useful for the user to quantitatively derive the problem of the product. Consequently, user needs and usability problems can be identified, which can help improve product quality.

• Journal of The Korea Institute of Healthcare Architecture
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.27-35
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• 2007

According to the 2005 Korean census, the 65 and over population now exceeds 9.5% of the total population and is growing rapidly. Meeting elderly environment and care needs of this rapidly growing segment of the population becomes a major challenge for public policies and planners. Since great deal amount of elderly will reside in their houses, aging in place concept becomes important. For the success of aging in place, the quality of individual house unit, community support systems, and quality of senior center of the community are crucial. Since elderly environments and facilities serve not only medical and/or care programs but also social activity program in aging society, senior centers need to promote social activities and other care programs. The purpose of this study is to analyze characteristics of environmental affordance of a well received senior center in Tokyo, Japan. In order to analyze the characteristics, Murtha & Lee user benefit criteria and Lawton's environmental affordance approaches were used. As results, design characteristics and interior elements which provide environmental affordance were enumerated by type of space. Based on needs and user benefit criteria, those features were analyzed. This study shows design characteristics, elements, and attributes which are well received and utilized by elderly users.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.281-287
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• 2014

Objective: The objective of the study is to develop a portable assistance device to help elderly users reduce strain on the knee and leg muscle while the elderly are standing up. Background: The pose of standing up from a chair is a basic movement, but the elderly often have difficulty standing up due to their weak muscles. We focus on designing a solution that helps the elderly reduce physical problems and support them standing up. Method: This study consists of three parts. Part I explores the way to reduce the refrain of leg muscle while standing up from a chair. In the process of structural development, we found that the moment is minimized when user pushes down the armrests due to a decrease in the force acting on the center of mass. In part II, a user test of 20 participants was carried out to rank the order of comfort of two stimuli: the chair with fixed armrests and the chair with the four-link mechanism that we created-in three different ways; (1) to stand up without touching armrests, (2) to stand up by pushing down on fixed armrests, and (3) to stand up by pushing down on armrests and being supported by the mechanism. To examine the statistically significant differences among the rank means, a Friedman test was conducted. In part III, we analyze the results of the user test and interview feedbacks, focusing on establishing a design strategy from UPO and visualizing it in 1:1 scale. Results: In part I, we decided to develop the four-link mechanism. The bottom is lifted up as the link rises. In part II, based on the rank data, we empirically found that UPO was assessed as the most comfortable during the stimuli. The thigh angle is smaller and the bottom of UPO is separated from a seat. In part III, after assessing the results and feedbacks, we created a visualization strategy for UPO: light, friendly, and novel. Conclusion: The portable and non-mechanical UPO comprises a four-link system that lifts the user's hips while standing. It can help users avoid knee and leg muscle strain. Its universal design considers the elderly's difficulties. Application: In a future study, combining light and durable material in UPO is expected to increase its usability. And this study is an opportunity to design various types of standing assistance devices.

• Korean Institute of Interior Design Journal
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.122-129
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• 2010

The basic premise of this study was that the elderly family would be one user type to live in apartment houses. This means that apartment houses should be designed by considering the elderly family as well as general young families. The purpose of this study was to carry out POE of apartment houses by the elderly resident and to suggest the design direction of apartment houses from the elderly's point of view. The subject was 150 elderly residents who lived in apartment houses in Jangyu new urban area, Kyungnam. The individual interview was done for this POE by six interviewers. They asked about how degree they were satisfied with 30 design elements of apartment houses. Those consisted of 8 elements related to outdoor environments, 16 ones to indoor environments, and 6 design evaluative elements for the elderly housing. The conclusions were as followings; 1) In general, the elderly subject was very satisfied with their apartment design. However, more considerations of the design evaluative elements for the elderly were needed in order to be apartment houses for the old generation. 2) Natural facilities such as small parks and walks, and local amenities should be arranged systematically to be used easily by the old residents. 3) The design solutions for reducing noise should be added. 4) The same quality of housing environment should be provided in all sizes of housing units.

• Journal of Korea Multimedia Society
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• v.19 no.8
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• pp.1433-1443
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• 2016

In the cases of the major cities, high poverty rate of the elderly, immature pension policies, and insufficient market conditions, policies and services for the employment of the elderly decrease the desire for the job participation. It is time to prevent the problems of the elderly, and induce the reachable seniors to participate in social activities. This research provides the location-based, customized job-search service for the elderly in order to actively support the participation in the economic activities of the elderly. The goal of SSJS(Smart Senior Job Search) is to provide the individual elderly with the customized position. It prints the appropriate positions near user location based on the residential area, job classification, and the physical condition, and provides the mash-up of the selectable job range in the unit distance based on the map. This customized service, which enables the seniors to select the type of the jobs based on their physical, mental and life conditions of the seniors, supports the participation in economic activities of the elderly people, and contribute to the expansion of the social job positions for the elderly and the equalization of the local development.

• The Korean Journal of Food & Health Convergence
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• v.7 no.5
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• pp.1-7
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• 2021

The aging of the population has a fundamental impact on the national economy, including decline in productive population, atrophy of available funds, slowdown of technological innovation, slowdown of economic growth, and decrease in vitality of society as a whole. Increase of elderly population would lead to increase in elderly welfare consumers, which would also lead to increase the demand for elderly welfare services. However, due to the continuation of the low birth rate, there is a great shortage of human resources who can handle this. In such a situation, the main goal of the elderly welfare system in the future should aim to actively try to design effective policies, prepare systems, and implement services for the problems of the aged society, and to find ways to expand the finances, manpower, methods, and facilities necessary for the welfare of the elderly. Elderly welfare services in Korea have been changed and developed in accordance with socioeconomic changes such as industrialization and urbanization. This study examines the changes in elderly welfare services in Korea by the flow of times and presents a method which utilizes artificial intelligence and Internet of Things in services for the elderly welfare consumers to improve both quality and efficiency.

• Journal of the Korean housing association
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.11-18
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• 2015

The purpose of this research is to analyze the relationships between spatial characteristics and social functions of elderly center in apartment complex. The data for the analysis were collected from July 3 to 13, 2012 in Ulsan by interviewing 177 elderly persons from 56 elderly centers in apartment complex, and were analyzed with descriptive statistics, analysis of variance, and multiple regression analysis. The eleven questions for social functions of elderly center were developed by the researchers based on the related literatures and were categorized into four factors including kinship, social interaction, leisure activity, and community belonging. The social functions of elderly center were found to be evaluated moderately appropriate except for the community belonging. The results of the multiple regression analysis of total social functions of elderly center provide strong support for the model. Five variables (one-person household, health condition, location of the center, floor plan of the center, and user organization) are shown to be significantly related to total social functions of the elderly center.