• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.25-38
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• 2021

The aim of this study is to protect workers and pedestrians from accidents at night or bad weather by attaching optical fiber to existing safety clothing that is made only with fluorescent fabrics and retroreflective materials. A safety vest was designed and manufactured by applying optical fiber, and energy-harvesting technology was developed. The safety vest was designed to emit light using the automatic flashing of optical fibers attached to the film, and an energy harvester was manufactured and attached to drive the light emission of the optical fiber more continuously. As a result, first, the vest wearer' body was recognized from a distance through the optical fiber and retroreflection, which helped prevent accidents. Thus, this concept helps in saving lives by preventing accidents during night-time work on the roadside or activities of rescue crew and sports activities, or by quickly finding the point of an accident with a signal that changes the optical fiber light emission. Second, to use the wasted energy, a piezoelectric-element power generation system was developed and the piezoelectric-harvesting device was mounted. Potentially, energy was efficiently produced by activating the effective charging amount of the battery part and charging it auxiliary. In the existing safety vest, detecting the person wearing the vest is almost impossible in the absence of ambient light. However, in this study, the wearer could be found within 100 m by the light emission from the safety vest even with no ambient light. Therefore, in this study, we will help in preventing and reducing accidents by developing smart safety clothing using optical fiber and energy harvester attached to save lives.

• Textile Coloration and Finishing
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.139-147
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• 2017

In this study, interesting area of development is retro-reflective thin film and then slitting to form retro-reflective material to be conbined with other fibers to form having retro-reflective characteristics, which slitting yarn can then be to provide fabrics. Glass beads are microscopic spherical size with diameters ranging from several microns to several millimeters. Applying the effects of optical property, glass beads are consumed for road safety used to make traffic signs, safety clothing and others. Glass beads retro-reflective films can be turned into slit yarns through slitting yarn process. The slit yarns can be combined into textiles using diverse methods such as weaving to provide a fabric having retro-reflective characteristics. Lightness and Luminance was increased with decreasing of interval of slit yarn in the fabric. Also, the hue is shifted greenish and bluish with interval of slit yarn.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.105-116
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• 2020

The purpose of this study is to progress the limitations and disadvantages of existing safety clothing by applying high technology to current safety clothing that is produced and distributed only with fluorescent fabrics and retroreflective materials. Therefore, the industrial suspender-type safety belt and engineering technology are introduced, designed, and fabricated to help save a life in an emergency. First, the suspender-type safety belt to be developed is designed to emit light by LED attached to the film, and the body of the belt-wearer is recognized from a distance through retroreflection from the flashing LED. It aims to support people's safety by preventing accidents during roadside work, rescue activities, and sports activities at night. Second, with the development of advanced devices when the user is in an unconscious state due to distress or falls into an unconscious state due to distress or accident, the tilt sensor of the control unit attached to the belt automatically detects the angle of the human body and generates light and sound. It is intended to further enhance the utilization by mounting a sensing and signaling device that generates a distress signal and shaping it in the form of a belt attached to a vest that can be easily detached from the outside of the garment. When the wearer falls due to an accident, the tilt sensor of this belt detects the angle change and then the controller generates a high-frequency sound and repeated LED blinking signals at the same time. In the case of conventional safety vests, it is almost impossible to detect that the person is wearing a vest when there is no ambient light, but in case of the safety belts in this study, the sound and light signals of the safety belt enable us to find the wearer within 100 meters even when there is no ambient light.