• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.87-96
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• 2013

Objective: The aim of this study is to describe several issues which should be considered in the human reliability analysis of soft control operations in nuclear power plants. Background: The operational environment of advanced main control rooms is totally different from that of conventional control rooms. The soft control is one of the major distinguishable features of the advanced main control rooms. The soft control operations should be analyzed to estimate the effects on human reliability. Method: The literatures, about task analysis, simulation data analysis, and a human reliability analysis method for the soft control, were reviewed. From the review, important issues for the human reliability analysis of the soft control were raised. Results: The results of task and simulation data analysis showed that the soft control characteristics could have large effect on human reliability and they should be considered in the human reliability analysis of the soft control operations. Conclusion: The soft control may affect human error and performance of operators. The issues described in this paper should be considered in the human reliability method for the advanced main control rooms. Application: The results of the soft control operation analysis might help to design more efficient interface and education/training program for preventing human errors. The described issues might help to develop a human reliability analysis method for soft control operations.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.15-28
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• 2003

The one of the most important factors is the platoon design on developing AH3(Advanced Highway System), as it is related to traffic efficiency and drivers' safety. This study was evaluated that how much speed is comfortable for drivers and how long distance is appropriate for vehicular gap of platoon by measuring drivers' physiology signal and sensibility. A fixed-based AHS simulator was developed by using a real vehicle cockpit and the restructured part of Korean highway for human factors evaluation. The EEG(electroencephalogram), ECG (electrocardiogram) and GSR(Galvanic Skin Response) were measured for obtaining drivers' physiology signal according to the change of speed and gap. The brain wave(${\alpha},\;{\beta},\;{\delta},\;{\theta}$) by EEG, the response of the autonomic nervous system. the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system, by ECG, and relax-arousal situation by GSR were analyzed. The SD(Semantic Differential) method was also applied to evaluate drivers' sensibility by 5-grade evaluation scale with 96 adjectives. SSQ(Simulator Sickness Questionnaire) was used to measure the simulator sickness of pre and post driving, two times. As the results, drivers were comfortable with 120km/h speed of platoon and lam to 15m vehicular distance. The results of this study may differ from the adaption of the reality because of many parameters. However, the purpose of this study is show to significant results of the drivers' safety and the acceptability of human factors evaluation.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.45-56
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• 2004

The purpose of this study is to evaluate perceived discomfort of working postures in terms of upper body (back, shoulder, and elbow) flexions when an external load varies. Eighteen subjects participated in an experiment of appraising perceived discomfort of varying upper body postures with three levels of external loads given. The ANOVA results showed that the perceived discomfort of upper body postures was significantly affected by the external load. It was also apparent that the interactions between external load and upper body posture were significant (p< 0.001). The result implies that a new posture classification scheme for workload assessment methods may be in need to reflect such interactions between external load and upper body posture. In order to support the statement, a regression model of perceived discomfort of upper body postures obtained from the experiment was developed and compared to that of perceived discomfort of seven work-related postures found in automobile assembly operations. The correlation coefficient between predicted and actual values of perceived discomfort was about 0.96. It is expected that the result help to properly estimate the body stress resluting from worker's postures and external loads and can be used as a valuable design guideline on preventing work-related musculoskeletal diseases in industry.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.9-21
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• 2004

As menu structure of household appliance is complicated, user's cognitive workload frequently occurs errors. In existing studies, errors didn't present that interpretation for cognitive factors and alternatives, but are only considered as statistical frequency. Therefore, error classification and analysis in tasks is inevitable in usability evaluation. This study classified human error throughout information process model and navigation behavior. Human error is defined as incorrect decision and behavior reducing performance. And navigation is defined as unrelated behavior with target item searching. We searched and analyzed human errors and its causes as a case study, using mobile phone which could control appliances in near future. In this study, semantic problems in menu structure were elicited by SAT. Scenarios were constructed by those. Error analysis tests were performed twice to search and analyze errors. In 1st prototype test, we searched errors occurred in process of each scenario. Menu structure was revised to be based on results of error analysis. Henceforth, 2nd Prototype test was performed to compare with 1st. Error analysis method could detect not only mistakes, problems occurred by semantic structure, but also slips by physical structure. These results can be applied to analyze cognitive causes of human errors and to solve their problems in menu structure of electronic products.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.463-467
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• 2012

This study aims to empirically investigate population stereotype of burner-control linkage of four-stove gas range for Koreans. Background: The previous studies' results for gas range stereotypes were different depending upon methods adopted, i.e., whether using questionnaires, computer simulation or physical models. It is known that the physical model experiment should not be methodologically replaced by the computer simulation or paper-and-pencil tests. Stereotype of gas range for Koreans was surveyed based on questionnaires, but has not been dealt with by using physical models. Method: An experiment was conducted to investigate stereotype of four-burner gas range, in which 32 subjects participated and a real gas range available in the market was bought and used. Four types of burner-control linkage were used as independent variable, and reaction time as dependent variable. Results: ANOVA revealed that four types of burner-control linkage and subjects' gender were not significant on reaction time. Duncan's multiple range test showed that reaction times for type III was significantly lower than those for the other three types of burner-control linkage(${\alpha}$=0.05). Conclusion: It is concluded based on the results of this study that stereotype of gas range for Koreans is type III. This is in agreement with results of existing studies using questionnaire survey, while different from those based on physical models. Application: The results of this study would be useful as an ergonomic guideline when designing gas ranges or similar equipments for minimizing operation errors.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.673-680
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• 2010

The effects of different auditory warnings on response time and accuracy were studied in a laboratory ship-bridge work environment. Subjective preference on the type of auditory warnings was also of a primary concern. Twenty five subjects were asked to select an appropriate button for the warning sound presented with three types of auditory warning (abstract sound, auditory icon, and voice alarm) and five levels of warning situation (fire, steering failure, collision, engine failure, and low power). Results showed that the response time and accuracy was significantly affected by the types of auditory warning. The voice alarm resulted in a higher accuracy and subjective preference, as compared to the auditory icon and abstract sound. Regarding the response time, auditory icons and voice alarms were equivalent and superior to abstract sounds. Actual or potential applications of this research include guidelines for the design of integrated ship bridge systems.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.505-511
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• 2010

The purpose of this study was to show the occurrences of musculoskeletal disease in aging society and basic information on developments of a systematic prevention program and proposed management measures needed to prevent the disease. The Korea Occupational Safety & Health Agency has analyzed cases of industrial accidents that cause musculoskeletal disease, from 1998 to 2007. They found 30,439 people suffering from the disease during those ten years. This information is from the Ministry of Labor's industrial accident analysis and the industrial accident survey from the Korea Occupational Safety & Health Agency. The data was analyzed by age and industrial classification. In Korea, according to the studies on aging society, the occurrence of musculoskeletal disease in elderly employee's have increased, so prevention programs are needed. Psychological, mental and cognitive programs are needed, as well as other prevention programs to ensure health in old age. In this study, we were able to see the state of musculoskeletal disease in aging society and the countermeasures to prevent the disease, such as a universal design, guarantees, and recuperation services. Later, we found that studying the various elderly patients would be of great help to us.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.639-646
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• 2010

The APAM's quantitative effectiveness and comparative study in preventing and treating pressure ulcer has not been sufficiently evaluated mainly because of uncertainty of pressure load input and lack of interpretation of dynamic perfusion recovery characteristics of soft tissue. The purpose of this paper was to quantify and analyze the alternating pressure characteristics of APAM as a preventive measure for pressure ulcers. To quantify the alternating load to human body, we introduced alternating pressure profile concept and developed parametric model of the profile. Regarding pressure level and cycle time, 3 global and 7 local periodic parameters were used to define the profile such as light, standard, typical and heavy duty profile shape. Pressure impulse ratio of light duty is the lowest but pressure fluctuation is significantly high. For the same duty shape, contact conditions are changed with alternating cycle time and more dramatically in shorter alternating cycle time conditions. We can conclude that if we use shorter alternating cycle time on APAM's operation we can get more positive effects regarding to inflated contact time condition. We proposed the quantitative methods on tissue viability study of external loading by simultaneous measurement of interface pressure and tissue perfusion with proper alternating pressure profile conditions.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.57-67
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• 2009

This study proposed a practical metaphor development process that consisted of three steps: 1) identifying major functions, 2) developing metaphor candidates, and 3) evaluating appropriateness of the candidates. In the first step, a total of 27 functions might be implemented in a driver information system (DIS) in the near future. Then, three metaphor candidates were selected from existing metaphors, which were reported to be more practical than others by previous studies. Finally, the candidates were evaluated on their appropriateness for driver information systems by using a quick and simple survey. As a result, two metaphors (a PC and a secretary) were identified as the most appropriate ones. The two metaphors can be used to design a variety of interfaces and interactions for driver information systems. In addition, the development process proposed in this study could be applied to developing metaphors for emerging devices with a variety of functions (e.g. PMPs, MP3s, and electronic dictionaries) as well as driver information systems.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.17-24
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• 2010

There has been recent interest in intelligent vehicle technologies, such as advanced driver assistance systems (ADASs) or in-vehicle information systems (IVISs) that offer a significant enhancement of safety and convenience to drivers and passengers. However, unsuitable design of HMI (Human Machine Interface) must increase driver distraction and workload, which in turn increase the chance of traffic accidents. Distraction in particular often occurs under a heavy driving workload due to multitasking with various electronic devices like a cell phone or a navigation system while driving. According to the 2005 road traffic accidents in Korea report published by the ROad Traffic Authority (ROTA), more than 60% of the traffic accidents are related to driver error caused by distraction. This paper suggests the structure of vehicle environment for real-time driving behavior monitoring system while driving which is can be used the driver workload management systems (DWMS). On-road experiment results showed the feasibility of the suggested vehicle environment for driving behavior monitoring system.