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Objective: The purpose of this study is to find the level of physical relaxation of individual subject by monitoring psychophysiological biofeedback to different types of mattresses. And, the study also aims to find a protocol to make a selection of the best mattress based on the measured information. Background: In Korea, there are an increasing number of people using western style bed. However, they are often fastidious in choosing the right mattress for them. In fact, people use their past experience with their old mattress as well as the spontaneous experience they encounter in a show room to finally decide to buy a bed. Method: Total five mattresses were tested in this study. After measuring the elasticity of the mattresses, they were sorted into five different classes. Physiological and psychological variables including Electromyography (EMG), heart rates (HR), oxygen saturations (SaO2) were used. In addition, the peak body pressure concentration rate was used to find uncomfortably pressured body part. Finally, the personal factors and subjective satisfaction were also examined. A protocol was made to select the best mattress for individual subject. The selection rule for the protocol considered all the variables tested in this study. Results: The result revealing psychological comfort range of 0.68 to 0.95, dermal comfort range of 3.15 to 6.07, back muscle relaxation range of 0.25 to 1.64 and personal habit range of 2.0 to 3.4 was drawn in this study. Also a regression model was developed to predict biofeedback with the minimal use of biofeedback devices. Moreover results from the proposed protocol with the regression equation and subjective satisfaction were compared with each other for validation. Ten out of twenty subjects recorded the same level of relaxation, and eight subjects showed one-level difference while two subjects showed two-levels difference. Conclusion: The psychophysiological variables and suitability selection process used in this study seem to be used for selecting and assessing ergonomic products mechanically or emotionally. Application: This regression model can be applied to the mattress industry to estimate back muscle relaxation using dermal, psychophysiology and personal habit values.

Twenty healthy elderly and twenty healthy young taxi drivers drove a car simulator through an immersive virtual environment. Two driving events were considered intersection crossing and overtaking a lead vehicle with continuous cross traffic coming from opposing direction. The physiological responses measured were electroencephalogram (EEG) from frontal (Fz) and occipital lobe (O2), electrocardiogram (ECG), and galvanic skin response (GSR). The data were measured using Biopac MP150 system and analyzed using AcqKnowledge (ver. 4.2) software. EEG results conveyed stress and eyestrain for the elderly; the increased heart rate and GSR results expressed the nervousness and/or stress for the elderly in both driving situations. The physiological results confirm that aging causes a decrement in cognitive functions, the deficit in visual perceptual skills, and difficulty in decision-making. Therefore, research and policy improvement required for elders. For example, the shorter renewal period for a driving license, and cognitive test like in the USA.

Stroke is a brain attack (or infarction of a portion of the brain) caused by the sudden disturbance of blood supply to that area. In recent years, even though the number of stroke-related deaths has been decreasing in Korea, the incidence of stroke is increasing, and the incidence increase with age. The chances of surviving from an acute and sudden infarction are much higher if the elderly people get emergency medical assistance within a few hours of occurrence. Elderly health monitoring and emergency alert system are mentioned as one of the main application areas of pervasive computing and biomedical applications. Moreover, a proactive elderly health monitoring system involves active capture of brain and body movement signals, signal analysis, communication, detection and warning processes. The primary objective of this research will be concerned itself with ambient assisted living issues for the successful detection and generation of alarms in cases of stroke onset, which will allow the timely delivery of medical assistance, to mitigate the long-term effects of these attacks.

The overall aim of this study is to collect stroke assessment methodology for pre-detect the stroke using the wearable devices. The particular objectives of the study were (1) to find various stroke-monitoring methodologies, (2) to compare stroke-monitoring methodologies, (3) to develop a methodology that can pre-detect the stroke. For this purpose, a systematic search was conducted using Google Scholar for studies published from 2010 to 2015. The search was restricted to papers published in English and containing the terms “stroke motion”, “stroke detection”, “stroke application”. The literature survey revealed various stroke detection methods including motion pattern, gait analysis, head impulse test, electrocardiogram, eye movements, muscle activity recognition, and so on.

At present, many automakers are paying attention to develop vehicles with IoT enabled including healthcare, accident prevention, vehicle safety, driver safety, driver and passenger comfort, vehicle monitoring, etc. This paper focused on reviewing the recent developments in driver's health and comfort monitoring through IoT. The literature review was performed with popular search engines/databases like PubMed, ScienceDirect, Elsevier Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar. The search was based on keywords like "Healthcare Monitoring", "Seating Comfort", "IoT developments", "Smart Sensing", "Embedded Sensors", "Wearable Sensors", "in-vehicle smart assistance", "Autonomous Vehicle/Car". Later, the articles were sorted out according to the relevance of this paper's focus (i.e., driver's health and comfort monitoring through IoT) by reading title, abstract, and full article. The results show that there have been many IoT based health and comfort monitoring developments concerning the vehicle. We have classified and summarised the developments as health monitoring through seat pan, seat back, seat belt, steering wheel, eye tracking and face tracking, and comfort monitoring/enhancement through smart seating, smart seat cushion, smart door module, smart air-bag, smart seat belt buckles. This survey would be giving in-depth knowledge on recent developments in the field of automotive and IoT.

A hand-held sport characterises racket sports including squash, badminton, tennis, and table tennis. This study discusses squash and kinematics involved. There are varies shots can be played in squash including rail shot, boast shot, and backhand drop shot. Unlike other shots, the backhand drop shot requires control over the racket, control in swing speed and hitting angle, control in angular displacement of elbow, trunk and shoulder joints. With author's knowledge, there were not much research studies on squash kinematics. This study considered squash backhand drop shot and performed the kinematic analysis. Subjects (squash players) in the twenties participated, who had no injuries in the last six months. The players were separated into expert and novice groups. The kinematic analysis was performed through a 3D motion analysis system when the players are performing backhand drop shot. The results compare the displacement and velocities of trunk and racket, and the angular displacements and velocities of elbow and shoulder joints between the groups. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS 20.0. The lap time required by the expert group was longer than that of the novice group. The expert group was used significantly (p

Neck pain or cervical pain is most common in individuals who are all working in seated postures for prolonged period of time, example computer users. The pain caused by extreme postural positions including forward head postures and extension angle maintained in cervical. The use of cervical vertebra traction therapy has increased as a part of rehabilitation medicine. However, lack of usability standard in this traction therapy i.e., the exact instructions on how to choose the traction force and location are unclear. To fix this issue, first, the cervical spine traction system analysing the change of cervical spine depending on the traction location has been investigated. Motion analysis systems are widely used to measure the changes in the body part movement. However, the precision and repeatability of motion analysis systems are not much studied. In this paper, the precision and repeatability of a three-dimensional (3D) motion analysis system (i.e., NDI’s Optotrak Certus (OC)) is evaluated with developed 3D robot for traction therapy as an application example. The 3D robot quantitated the accuracy and precision of the system regarding angle and distance. Angle and distance among markers showed good agreement between measurements, and comparable measures of precision reported. Experimental results demonstrate a measure of precision and repeatability for the movement of the patients on the cervical traction system; hence the repeatability was satisfactory.

Alcohol consumption impairs driving skills and responsible for a high proportion of traffic accidents. This research examined the effects of blood alcohol consumption (BAC) level on driver’s physiological behavior and driving performance under simulated driving environment. The participants consisted of eight healthy young male drivers with an average of eight years driving experience. The scenario considered was 5 min driving on a highway with different speed limits, crossings, and unexpected event. Results showed that statistically significantly decreased alpha and increased theta power frequency was observed with increased BAC level. Heart rate was statistically significantly elevated with increased BAC level. The accident rate and the over speed rate were significantly higher with higher BAC level. Alcohol intoxication affected drivers’ decision-making ability, vision and integrating visual information ability.

The objectives of this study were (1) to develop a three-dimensional chitosan scaffold in combination with transforming growth factor-beta1 (TGF-beta1)-loaded chitosan microspheres and (2) to evaluate the effect of the TGF-beta1 release on the chondrogenic potential of rabbit chondrocytes in the scaffolds. TGF-beta1 was loaded into chitosan microspheres using an emulsion-crosslinking method, resulting in spherical shapes with a size ranging from 0.3 to 1.5 microm. Controlled release of TGF-beta1, as measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), was observed with chitosan microspheres over 7 days. Chitosan solutions (2% and 3%) were fabricated into two types of scaffolds with different pore morphologies and mechanical properties using a freeze-drying technique, with the result that scaffold with higher concentrations showed smaller pores and lower porosity, leading to a much stronger scaffold. The TGF-beta1 microspheres were incorporated into the scaffolds at a concentration of 10 ng TGF-beta1/scaffold and then chondrocytes seeded into each scaffold and incubated in vitro for 2 weeks. The 2% chitosan scaffolds showed higher cell attachment levels than the 3% chitosan scaffolds (P < 0.01), regardless of the TGF-beta1 microspheres. Both the proliferation rate and glycosaminoglycan (GAG) production were significantly higher for scaffolds incorporating TGF-beta1 microspheres than for the control scaffolds without microspheres 10 days after incubation. Extracellular matrix staining by Safranin O and immunohistochemistry for type II collagen both significantly increased in scaffolds containing TGF-beta1 microspheres. These results suggest that the TGF-beta1 microsphere incorporated in scaffolds have the potential to enhance cartilage formation.