Han Wook Song

Quantitative Sasang Constitution Diagnosis Method for Distinguishing between Tae-eumin and Soeumin Types Based on Elasticity Measurements of the Skin of the Human Hand

The usefulness of constitutional diagnoses based on skin measurements has been established in oriental medicine. However, it is very difficult to standardize traditional diagnosis methods. According to Sasang constitutional medicine, humans can be distinguished based on properties of the skin, including its texture, roughness, hardness and elasticity. The elasticity of the skin was previously used to distinguish between people with Tae-eumin (TE) and Soeumin (SE) constitutions. The present study designed a system that uses a compression method to measure the elasticity of hand skin and evaluated its measurement repeatability. The proposed system was used to compare the skin elasticity between SE and TE subjects, which produced a measurement repeatability error of <3%. The proposed system is suitable for use as a quantitative constitution diagnosis method for distinguishing between TE and SE subjects with an acceptable level of uncertainty.

The development of a blood pressure simulator in KRISS

Blood pressure is defined as the amount of force at unit area which the blood exerts on a wall of a blood vessel. The BP has a clinical importance as the basic index in the medical examination of patients. Especially, the percentage of the hypertensive is more than 15% in an adult population of Korea and hypertension is notorious as ‘a silent killer’ because it has no prior symptoms. The most important thing in the diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of hypertension is the accurate measurement of the BP. In this study, we developed the blood pressure simulator for the monitoring of oscillometric BP devices and compared this KRISS simulator with commercial simulators. Finally, we tested the commercial oscillometric BP devices (6 models from 5 manufacturers) using the KRISS simulator. The KRISS simulator has the repeatability error below 0.1% for the pressure generation and we expected to develop the BP simulator for Korean by the collection of clinical data from Koreans.

Design of Flexible Hybrid Tactile Display Using Electro-Vibration and Electroactive Polymer Modules

When a user explores over an object, mechanoreceptors in human’s fingertip dominantly detect small-scale shapes and textures on the surface of the object. For generating and conveying virtual tactile sensations to users, we developed a new flexible hybrid tactile display consisting of an electroactive polymer (EAP) module and an electro-vibration module. The EAP module was used to construct an ultra-thin 3×3 pin-array module for mimicking small-scale shapes on the object. Since each cell of the proposed 3×3 EAP module is independently actuated with high vertical stroke, it is enough to create various micro-shapes. The electro-vibration module was attached on the EAP module. The electro-vibration module consists of two plates coated with compliant electrodes. The electro-vibration module creates micro-vibration to imitate virtual texture on the objects. To design the proposed hybrid tactile display, the equations for the mechanical models of the proposed tactile display were derived. The working principle of the modules was verified based on the mechanical model. To control the developed combined tactile display, a high-volt multichannel controller was developed by using a high-volt DC-DC converter and opto-couplers. The proposed hybrid tactile display with its control system generates sufficient performances to create realistic and vivid virtual tactile sensations.Copyright

The development of the friction coefficient inspection equipment for skin using a load cell

The skin is an indispensible organ for human because it contributes to the metabolism using its own biochemical functions as well as it protects the human body from the exterior stimuli. Recently, the friction coefficient have been used as the decision index of the progress for the bacterial aliments in the field of the skin physiology and the importance of friction coefficient have been increased in the skin care market because of the needs of the well being times. In addition, the usage of friction coefficient is known to have the big discrimination ability in classification of human constitutions, which is utilized in the alternative medicine. In this study, we designed a system which used the multi axes load cell and hemi-circular probe and tried to measure the friction coefficient of hand skins repeatedly. Using this system, the relative repeatability error for the measurement of the friction coefficient was below 4 %. The coefficient is not concerned in curvatures of tips. Using this system, we will try to establish the standard for classification of constitutions.

MEASUREMENTS AND CHARACTERIZATIONS OF MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF HUMAN SKINS

A skin is an indispensible organ for humans because it contributes to metabolism using its own biochemical functions and protects the human body from external stimuli. Recently, mechanical properties such as a thickness, a friction and an elastic coefficient have been used as a decision index in the skin physiology and in the skin care market due to the increased awareness of wellbeing issues. In addition, the use of mechanical properties is known to have good discrimination ability in the classification of human constitutions, which are used in the field of an alternative medicine. In this study, a system that measures mechanical properties such as a friction and an elastic coefficient is designed. The equipment consists of a load cell type (manufactured by the authors) for the measurements of a friction coefficient, a decompression tube for the measurement of an elastic coefficient. Using the proposed system, the mechanical properties of human skins from different constitutions were compared, and the relative repeatability error for measurements of mechanical properties was determined to be less than 2%. Combining the inspection results of medical doctors in the field of an alternative medicine, we could conclude that the proposed system might be applicable to a quantitative constitutional diagnosis between human constitutions within an acceptable level of uncertainty.