• Title/Summary/Keyword: walking environments

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The Design and Implementation Navigation System For Visually Impaired Person (시각 장애인을 위한 Navigation System의 설계 및 구현)

  • Kong, Sung-Hun;Kim, Young-Kil
    • Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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    • v.16 no.12
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    • pp.2702-2707
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    • 2012
  • In the rapid growth of cities, road has heavy traffic and many buildings are under constructions. These kinds of environments make more difficulty for a person who is visually handicapped to walk comfortable. To alleviate the problem, we introduce Navigation System to help walking for Visually Impaired Person. It follows, service center give instant real time monitoring to visually impaired person for their convenient by this system. This Navigation System has GPS, Camera, Audio and Wi-Fi(wireless fidelity) available. It means that GPS location and Camera image information can be sent to service center by Wi-Fi network. To be specific, transmitted GPS location information enables service center to figure out the visually impaired person's whereabouts and mark the location on the map. By delivered Camera image information, service center monitors the visually impaired person's view. Also, they can offer live guidance to visually impaired person by equipped Audio with live talking. To sum up, Android based Portable Navigation System is a specialized navigation system that gives practical effect to realize more comfortable walking for visually impaired person.

The Study on Applying Ankle Joint Load Variable Lower-Knee Prosthesis to Development of Terrain-Adaptive Above-Knee Prosthesis (노면 적응형 대퇴 의족개발을 위한 발목 관절 부하 가변형 하퇴 의족 적용에 대한 연구)

  • Eom, Su-Hong;Na, Sun-Jong;You, Jung-Hwun;Park, Se-Hoon;Lee, Eung-Hyuk
    • Journal of IKEEE
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    • v.23 no.3
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    • pp.883-892
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    • 2019
  • This study is the method which is adapted to control ankle joint movement for resolving the problem of gait imbalance in intervals where gait environments are changed and slope walking, as applying terrain-adaptive technique to intelligent above-knee prosthesis. In this development of above-knee prosthesis, to classify the gait modes is essential. For distinguishing the stance phases and the swing phase depending on roads, a machine learning which combines decision tree and random forest from knee angle data and inertial sensor data, is proposed and adapted. By using this method, the ankle movement state of the prosthesis is controlled. This study verifies whether the problem is resolved through butterfly diagram.

Interaction effects of pen environment and sex on behavior, skin lesions and physiology of Windsnyer pigs

  • Mkwanazi, Mbusiseni Vusumuzi;Kanengoni, Arnold Tapera;Chimonyo, Michael
    • Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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    • v.32 no.3
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    • pp.452-458
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    • 2019
  • Objective: The study was carried to determine the interaction effects of pen enrichment and sex on behavioral activities, skin lesions and physiology of Windsnyer pigs. Methods: Forty-eight growing Windsnyer pigs of both sex, with an average initial body weight of 21.6 (${\pm}9.01$) kg were used. Four pigs were randomly assigned to either enriched or barren pens at a stocking density of $0.35m^2/pig$. Enriched pens contained 2 L bottles filled with stones and suspended at head level on ropes stretching across the pens. In addition, two plastic balls (90 mm in diameter) and 500 mL bottles (235 mm long) were placed on the floor of each enriched pen. Results: Pigs in barren environments had higher heart rates (p<0.001) than those in enriched pens. There was an interaction of pen environment and sex on rectal temperature (p<0.001). Females in enriched pens had higher rectal temperatures (p<0.05) than females in barren pens. There was no interaction of pen environment and sex on time spent eating and drinking (p>0.05). Time spent bullying was influenced (p<0.05) by pen environment and sex. Female pigs in barren environment spent more time on bullying than females in enriched pens. There was an interaction of pen environment and sex on time spent lying down and walking (p<0.05). Female pigs in enriched pens spent more time lying down than females in barren pens. Males in barren pens spent more time walking than males in enriched pens while no effect of pen environment was observed in females. There was an interaction of pen environment and sex on the number of skin lesions in the head, neck and shoulder region and other parts of the body (p<0.05). Conclusion: It was concluded that pen enrichment reduced the number of skin lesions and anti-social behaviors, especially for female pigs. There is a need, therefore of housing indigenous pigs under confinement.

Physiological and psychological effects of nature-based outdoor activities on firefighters in South Korea

  • Sang-Eun Lee;Heon-Gyo Kwon;Jisu Hwang;Hyelim Lee;Dawou Joung;Bum-Jin Park
    • Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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    • v.51 no.1
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    • pp.9-23
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    • 2024
  • This study investigates the physiological and psychological effects of a nature-based outdoor activity program in an environment reflecting the characteristics of forest and coastal areas on 30 firefighters (average age: 40.4 ± 9.8 years) who are frequently exposed to dangerous situations. Blood pressure, pulse pressure, and heart rate variability were used as physiological measurement indicators, and the Korean versions of PANAS (positive affect and negative affect schedule), WEMWBS (Warwick-Edinburgh mental well-being scale), and PRS (perceived restorativeness scale) were used as psychological measurement indicators. For four days and three nights, the participants experienced programs at Hallyeohaesang Nature Center and the surrounding mountains, seas, and islands, utilizing forest resources such as trekking on forest trails, walking barefoot, taking aromatic footbaths, meditating in forest oxygen domes, and lying on relaxation chairs, and programs utilizing marine resources such as taking a boat to an island, walking on forest trails with seascape views, and sailing on a yacht. Participants' systolic blood pressure and pulse pressure decreased, and participants' positive emotions increased and negative emotions decreased after the program. There was a statistically significant increase in mental well-being and perceived restorative environment. Through this study, it was found that nature-based outdoor activity programs based on forest and marine resources are effective in physiological and psychological stability of firefighters. It is hoped that the results of this study will be applied to other high-risk workers for PTSD, who have high stress levels, by combining forest healing and marine healing, and expanding the scope and diversity of programs in more diverse environments and conditions.

Inferring Pedestrian Level of Service for Pathways through Electrodermal Activity Monitoring

  • Lee, Heejung;Hwang, Sungjoo
    • International conference on construction engineering and project management
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    • 2022.06a
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    • pp.1247-1248
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    • 2022
  • Due to rapid urbanization and population growth, it has become crucial to analyze the various volumes and characteristics of pedestrian pathways to understand the capacity and level of service (LOS) for pathways to promote a better walking environment. Different indicators have been developed to measure pedestrian volume. The pedestrian level of service (PLOS), tailored to analyze pedestrian pathways based on the concept of the LOS in transportation in the Highway Capacity Manual, has been widely used. PLOS is a measurement concept used to assess the quality of pedestrian facilities, from grade A (best condition) to grade F (worst condition), based on the flow rate, average speed, occupied space, and other parameters. Since the original PLOS approach has been criticized for producing idealistic results, several modified versions of PLOS have also been developed. One of these modified versions is perceived PLOS, which measures the LOS for pathways by considering pedestrians' awareness levels. However, this method relies on survey-based measurements, making it difficult to continuously deploy the technique to all the pathways. To measure PLOS more quantitatively and continuously, researchers have adopted computer vision technologies to automatically assess pedestrian flows and PLOS from CCTV videos. However, there are drawbacks even with this method because CCTVs cannot be installed everywhere, e.g., in alleyways. Recently, a technique to monitor bio-signals, such as electrodermal activity (EDA), through wearable sensors that can measure physiological responses to external stimuli (e.g., when another pedestrian passes), has gained popularity. It has the potential to continuously measure perceived PLOS. In their previous experiment, the authors of this study found that there were many significant EDA responses in crowded places when other pedestrians acting as external stimuli passed by. Therefore, we hypothesized that the EDA responses would be significantly higher in places where relatively more dynamic objects pass, i.e., in crowded areas with low PLOS levels (e.g., level F). To this end, the authors conducted an experiment to confirm the validity of EDA in inferring the perceived PLOS. The EDA of the subjects was measured and analyzed while watching both the real-world and virtually created videos with different pedestrian volumes in a laboratory environment. The results showed the possibility of inferring the amount of pedestrian volume on the pathways by measuring the physiological reactions of pedestrians. Through further validation, the research outcome is expected to be used for EDA-based continuous measurement of perceived PLOS at the alley level, which will facilitate modifying the existing walking environments, e.g., constructing pathways with appropriate effective width based on pedestrian volume. Future research will examine the validity of the integrated use of EDA and acceleration signals to increase the accuracy of inferring the perceived PLOS by capturing both physiological and behavioral reactions when walking in a crowded area.

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A Study on Distance Estimation in Virtual Space According to Change of Resolution of Static and Dynamic Image (가상현실공간에서 정적 및 동적 이미지의 해상도 변화에 따른 거리추정에 관한 연구)

  • Ryu, Jae-Ho
    • Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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    • v.16 no.3
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    • pp.109-119
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    • 2011
  • The virtual reality (VR) technology has been used as the application of architectural presentation or simulation tool in the field of industry. The high immersion and intuitive visual information are the great merits of design evaluation or environmental simulation when we are using the virtual environments. But the distortion of distance perception in VR is still a big problem when the accuracy of distance presentation is strictly required. For example, distance estimation is especially important when the virtual environments are applied to the presentational tool for evaluation the space design or planning in the field of architecture. If there are some perception error between the built space in real and represented space in virtual, the accurate design evaluation or modification of design is hard to be carried out during the design development stage. In this paper, we have carried out some experiments about distance estimation in the immersive virtual environments to verify the factors and their influence. We made a hypothesis that the lack of the information for the user in VR causes the different distance estimation from the real world because users are usually comfortable with moving fast and long distance in VR environments compared with moving slow and short distance in real space. So, we carried out basic experiment to prove our hypothesis that the lack of information makes subjects estimate the distance of walking in VR shorter compared with the same distance in real. Also, among the factors that probably affect the distance estimation in VR, we have verified the influence of the image resolution. The influence of resolution degradation of image on the distance estimation was verified with the condition of static and dynamic images. The results showed that the resolution has deep relation with the distance estimation. For example, the subject underestimated the distance at the lower resolution condition. We also found the methods of the making the lower resolution image could affect on the visual perception of subjects.

Physiological Effects of Different Underwear Materials Thermoregulatory Response during Exercise with Sweating at Cold Environments (한랭환경하에서 운동발한시 인체의 체온조절반응에 대한 내의소재의 생리학적 의의)

  • Kwon, Oh-Kyung;Kim, Tae-Kyu;Son, Du-Hun;Park, Sung-Han
    • Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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    • v.1 no.1
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    • pp.43-49
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    • 1999
  • This study conducted 4 different kinds of underwear materials, which were A (Cotton 100%), B (Wool 100%), C (Cotton/Wool, 50/50%) and D (Acrylic/Cotton, 50/50%) and were done in a climate chamber under cold ambient $10{\pm}1^{\circ}C$, $40{\pm}5%RH$ by 6 male subjects who were in good health. Physiological parameters such as rectal and local skin temperature(forehead, forearm, hand, trunk, thigh, leg, foot, back and chest), heart rate, body weight loss, clothing microclimate, blood lactic acid concentration, and wearing sensation were measured. Started with a 15-min rest period, 15-min of exercise 1 (the condition of 4.5 mile/hr walking speed equivalent to with 8.5 Kcal energy consumption on the treadmill) period, 15-min rest period, exercise 2 (after 3minutes warming-up at 3.0. 3.7, 4.5. 5.2. 6.0, 6.7 mile/hr) until exhaustion period, and final 15-min of recovery period were performed. The results were as follows: The lowest mean skin temperature was acrylic/cotton in order of wool > cotton/wool > cotton > acrylic/cotton (F=13. 79. p<0.00l). Most of all skin temperature by parts of body had turned out in sequence of temperature wool > cotton/wool > acrylic/cotton > cotton. Fore arm part showed highest temperature about $32.43^{\circ}C$ on wool and had a tendency approximately $1.8^{\circ}C$ higher than cotton which had the lowest temperature, and had the biggest difference among garments in terms of skin temperature. The back temperature within clothing showed about $2^{\circ}C$ higher than the chest temperature within clothing. but the back humidity within clothing showed about 4~12% higher than the chest humidity within clothing. Body weight loss by each garment was this sequence; cotton > acrylic/cotton > wool > cotton/wool.

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An Evaluation of Outdoor Living Environments for Senior Citizens - Focused on the Prospective Seniors and Senior Citizens in Daejeon - (고령자를 위한 거주지 외부환경 평가 - 대전시 거주 준고령자 이상을 대상으로 -)

  • Lee, Shi-Young;Lee, Hei-Jung;Lim, Byung-Ho;Shim, Joon-Young
    • Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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    • v.39 no.4
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    • pp.39-48
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    • 2011
  • Korea is rapidly becoming an aging society. This study aims to examine the existing conditions of outdoor living environments to assist a healthy lifestyle for senior citizens and to determine the most influential factor in a senior-friendly outdoor space as well as to suggest improvements in existing conditions focused on the prospective senior population. This study relied on two methods: a descriptive method of researching publications and related scholastic writings and an empirical study that included a survey of present conditions and interviews with the prospective seniors and senior citizens in Daejeon. Conditions of outdoor living environments for seniors were found to be more than adequate in general. But some factors evaluated as low must be carefully tailored for seniors. First, the study showed that seniors evaluated as highest the 'use of a walkway' for a stroll and stayed outside for 1~2 hours at a time. Many vehicles parked in walkways were the most inconvenient factors in going for a walk. Second, the study showed that the evaluation of outdoor space was about average and 'sociality' was evaluated as the lowest. Third, the study showed that men evaluated lower than women 4 items: 'use and convenience of a wheelchair', 'night lighting', 'discrimination of signage at nighttime' and 'trees'. Respondents above the age of 66 are more uncomfortable with items such as 'slippery walking surface', 'stair handrail', 'discrimination of signage at nighttime' and 'direction of apartment complex' while respondents above the age of 80 are more uncomfortable with items of 'slippery walking surface', 'stair handrail' and 'discrimination of signage at nighttime'. Fourth, the evaluation by existing housing patterns was statistically significant in 20 of 22 evaluated items. This means that residents in apartment complex evaluated as high these items in general. In this study, existing outdoor living environments for the elderly did not display any immediately serious issues in the overall evaluation items. Assuming, however, that the aging population will quickly increase in the next ten years, items which are evaluated as low in descriptive statistics and items which give inconvenience to the elderly above the age of 80 in particular will need to be the first areas to be improved.

Control and VR Navigation of a Gait Rehabilitation Robot with Upper and Lower Limbs Connections (상하지가 연동된 보행재활 로봇의 제어 및 VR 네비게이션)

  • Novandy, Bondhan;Yoon, Jung-Won
    • Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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    • v.15 no.3
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    • pp.315-322
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    • 2009
  • This paper explains a control and navigation algorithm of a 6-DOF gait rehabilitation robot, which can allow a patient to navigate in virtual reality (VR) by upper and lower limbs interactions. In gait rehabilitation robots, one of the important concerns is not only to follow the robot motions passively, but also to allow the patient to walk by his/her intention. Thus, this robot allows automatic walking velocity update by estimating interaction torques between the human and the upper limb device, and synchronizing the upper limb device to the lower limb device. In addition, the upper limb device acts as a user-friendly input device for navigating in virtual reality. By pushing the switches located at the right and left handles of the upper limb device, a patient is able to do turning motions during navigation in virtual reality. Through experimental results of a healthy subject, we showed that rehabilitation training can be more effectively combined to virtual environments with upper and lower limb connections. The suggested navigation scheme for gait rehabilitation robot will allow various and effective rehabilitation training modes.

A Strategy of the Environmental Color of the Frontage Zone of Sidewalk for the Walkability (워커빌리티를 위한 가로변 전면공간의 환경색채 전략)

  • Kim, Sun-Young
    • Korean Institute of Interior Design Journal
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    • v.27 no.1
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    • pp.12-20
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    • 2018
  • After the "Landscaping Law" was enacted in 2007 Korea, national and local governments has been responding swiftly by seeking various methods. Seoul Metropolitan City and other municipalities have established "Seoul Coloring and Systematization" project, which analyzes and extracts the humanities, humanities and natural environments in 2007 as an opportunity to recognize the importance of environmental color. However, it is necessary to slightly supplement the color scheme created by the observer's concept. In this way, you have to find the color of the environment in a city where real life takes place. The city's environmental color has the concept of "walking" as the basic human behavior. Because the average speed is 4km, it differs from that of a vehicle that travels more than 60km per hour. Also, most of the frontage zone is used except for special cases. Therefore the characteristics of the environmental color and frontage zone on the road side were concluded in this paper as Single Type, Connection Type, and Extension Type. In addition, the principle of environmental color of city was established by the change of texture according to space of time and the characteristics of urban scale, and new media characteristics were found in various interactions. The results of this study suggest an environmental coloring strategy for workability such as hue continuity, hue harmonization and integrated design.