• 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.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.219-225
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• 2013

Separate and layered transmitting and receiving spiral coil arrays had been used for the optimized individual applications of magnetostrictive type long-range ultrasonic testing. In this study, it was demonstrated that when taking advantages of the spiral coils with the leg width reduced to be half of the previous one and of the empty spaces due to the decrease of leg width, the transmitting and receiving coil array can be arranged to form a single layer structure allowing more easy use and fabrication. Because of the number of turns of the receiving coils that is proportional to their leg width, the sensitivity of the single layer coil array was about half that of the corresponding double layer coil array while it allowed the receiving amplifier to get faster recovery from a saturation due to the main bang echo. It was also found that the two types of coil arrays have almost the same performances in the view points of signal-to-noise ratio and directivity control.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.432-438
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• 2004

Acoustic levitation induced by ultrasonic flexural vibration at 28.4 KHz with a vibration amplitude of 10 micrometers is presented. Levitation of multiple objects along the length of the beam in a gap of 8.3 mm which is the half of acoustic wavelength is experimentally demonstrated. Analytical analysis predicts that levitated objects for the gap of half-the wavelength converges to the center of the gap, which is experimentally verified. It is observed that levitated objects with well-balanced mass distribution are set into rotation due to acoustic streaming. For cylinder-shaped Styrofoam with a diameter of 1.8 mm and a length of 3 mm, measured rotational velocity is 2400 revolution per minute. Applications of standing wave field levitation (SWFL) include manipulation of biological cells and blood constituents in biotechnology, and fine powder in material engineering.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.30 no.11
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• pp.1612-1619
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• 2017

Objective: The objective of this study was to optimize ultrasonic-assisted enzymatic hydrolysis conditions, including enzyme-to-substrate (E/S) ratio, pH, and temperature, for producing porcine liver hydrolysates (PLHs) with the highest 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical scavenging activity by using response surface methodology (RSM). Methods: The study used RSM to determine the combination of hydrolysis parameters that maximized the antioxidant activity of our PLHs. Temperature ($40^{\circ}C$, $54^{\circ}C$, and $68^{\circ}C$), pH (8.5, 9.5, and 10.5), and E/S ratio (0.1%, 2.1%, and 4.1%) were selected as the independent variables and analyzed according to the preliminary experiment results, whereas DPPH free radical scavenging activity was selected as the dependent variable. Results: Analysis of variance showed that E/S ratio, pH, and temperature significantly affected the hydrolysis process (p<0.01). The optimal conditions for producing PLHs with the highest scavenging activity were as follows: E/S ratio, 1.4% (v/w); temperature, $55.5^{\circ}C$; and initial pH, 10.15. Under these conditions, the degree of hydrolysis, DPPH free radical scavenging activity, ferrous ion chelating ability, and reducing power of PLHs were 24.12%, 79%, 98.18%, and 0.601 absorbance unit, respectively. The molecular weight of most PLHs produced under these optimal conditions was less than 5,400 Da and contained 45.7% hydrophobic amino acids. Conclusion: Ultrasonic-assisted enzymatic hydrolysis can be applied to obtain favorable antioxidant hydrolysates from porcine liver with potential applications in food products for preventing lipid oxidation.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.34 no.11
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• pp.1613-1622
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• 2010

In this paper, the ultraprecision positioning control of an ultrasonic linear motor in a high-vacuum environment is presented. The bolt-clamped Langivin type transducer (BLT) with the 3rd longitudinal; and 6th lateral vibration modes was developed, which was excited by using the Eigen resonance frequency for two vibration modes in order to generate stable and high power. In practical applications, however, even if a geometrical design has an Eigen frequency, discordance between both mode frequencies can be generated by the contact mechanism and because of manufacturing errors as well as environmental factors. Both mode frequencies were precisely matched by adjusting the impedence. By using this method, the BLT can be driven under any environmental conditions. The nominal characteristic trajectory following(NCTF) control method was adopted to control the positioning of the system in vacuum. The developed linear motor stage show high positioning accuracy with 5 nm.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.298-306
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• 1997

Ultrasonic sensors are widely used in various applications due to advantages of low cost, simplicity in construction, mechanical robustness, and little environmental restriction in usage. But the main purposes of the noncontact sensors are rather narrowly confined within object detection and distance measurement. For the application of object recognition, ultrasonic sensors exhibit several shortcomings of poor directionality which results in low spatial resolution of an object, and specularity which gives frequent erroneous range readings. To resolve these problems in object recognition, an array of the sensors has been used. To improve the spatial resolution, more number of sensors are used in essence throughout the various devices of the sensor arrays. Under the disguise of a fixed number of the sensors, the array can be shifted mechanically in several steps. In this paper we propose a practical sensor resolution enhancement method using an electronic circuit accompanying the sensor array. The circuit changes the transmitter output voltage in several steps. Using the known sensor characteristics, a set of different return echo signals provide enhanced spatial resolution. The improvement is obtained without the cost of the increased number of the sensors nor extra mechanical devices.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.126-131
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• 2010

The purpose of this study is to assess the condition of composites used in aircraft under varying temperature environment with ultrasound guided wave technique. Investigation of crucial influential factor on the composite health monitoring related to aircraft operational environments such as the number of thermal cycles and temperature deviation between ground level and flight altitude has been of a great concern for aircraft safety issue. In this study, ultrasonic guided wave health monitoring scheme is proposed to evaluate composite specimens damaged with the thermal fatigue simulating aircraft operational condition. Guided wave dispersion curves are used to select right modes which show a promising sensitivity to each different thermal fatigue damage level. The present approach can be also implemented as one of on-lines health monitoring tools for aircraft.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.121-124
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• 2009

In this study, in order to develop compositions of ceramics suitable for piezoelectric actuator and ultrasonic vibrator applications using low temperature sintering, multilayer, PMN-PNN-PZT ceramics were fabricated using $Li_2CO_3$ and $Na_2CO_3$ as sintering aids. Their structural, piezoelectric and dielectric characteristics were investigated according to the Zr/Ti ratio. As the Zr/Ti ratio increased, the electromechanical coupling factor $k_p$, and piezoelectric constant $d_{33}$ and the mechanical quality factor $Q_m$ all increased with Zr/Ti ratio and then decreased after the ratio exceeded 50/50. At the ratio of Zr/Ti =49/51 and sintering temperature of $900^{\circ}C$; the density, electromechanical coupling factor $k_p$, dielectric constant ${\varepsilon}_r$ piezoelectric $d_{33}$ constant and mechanical quality factor $Q_m$ all showed the optimum values of 7.900 $g/cm^3$, 0.576, 856, 312 pC/N, 1,326, respectively. These property values are very suitable for multilayer ceramics actuator applications.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.1014-1017
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• 2007

Sound focusing technologies has been studied for various purposes from early 1990s. As a result, these technologies make us possible to apply in many uses. For example, we can treat tumors using focused ultrasonic waves without surgical knife and communicate in the ocean using time reversal array. Also applications for personal audio system become issues. Recently, as technologies are developing, in some applications, needs for regional focusing become increasing because previously suggested focusing methods, such as phase conjugation, time reversal and inverse filtering, were all about a point focusing. Therefore, studies on regional focusing method are essentially needed. Regional focusing method was firstly mentioned by Choi and Kim in 2002: acoustic contrast control. However, in regional focusing, physical interpretations between control variables and results are still not easy because of its complexity. In this regard, we tried to understand the relations between control variables and results in wavenumber domain and suggested a solution method for regional focusing: wavenumber spectrum matching. We also showed how to make spatially focused sound shape using the suggested method from the simplest case: line focusing.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.418-430
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• 2012

The present paper reviews the micro and nano nondestructive evaluation(NDE) technique that is possible to investigate the surface and measure the acoustic properties. The technical theory, features and applications of the ultrasonic atomic force microscopy(UAFM) and scanning acoustic microscopy(SAM) are illustrated. Especially, these technologies are possible to evaluate the mechanical properties in micro/nano structure and surface through the measurement of acoustic properties in addition to the observation of surface and subsurface. Consequently, it is thought that technique developments and applications of these micro/nano NDE in advanced industrial parts together with present nondestructive industry are widely possible hereafter.