The customer of massage chair is expanding day by day from middle age to all ages. In 2018, the market size was 700 billion KRW, an increase of 30 times over 10 years. However, most related SMEs suffer from excessive competition by the market monopoly of some major companies. In this situation, in order for a related company to survive, it is necessary to steadily research and develop new products. Founded in 2009, company L produces massage chairs for health and relaxation of customers. L’s products use a sound wave vibration module that is favorable for human body, unlike other products that use vibration motor type. However, frequent breakdowns of massage chair due to the vulnerability of plate (leaf) springs, which play an important role in sound wave vibration modules, made sap its competitiveness. In this paper, we propose a method to design desirable plate spring structure by sequentially experimenting with five different plate springs. The results of this study are expected to contribute to improve the quality of plate spring and the reliability of sound wave vibration module. In the future, it is necessary to find a way to use it in the development of foot massage or scalp management device as well as continuous research to find optimal plate spring structure through various analysis.

The author has proposed and verified the accuracy through experiments on a method of measurement through the use of sound waves that not only can quantitatively measure each of the dual directions of the fiber axis with high accuracy of membrane tension created on the surface of the membrane structure, but also can be easily operated in the field of construction. This paper reports the solution for problems of variables caused in the process of downsizing of the measurement equipment in order for practical use, and verifies the correspondence possibility of various stress ratios.

초음파는 비가청영역에서 나는 사운드이며 일상생활에서는 들을 수 없다. 초음파는 22kHz 이상의 주파수를 말하며 또한 이러한 성분을 초음파 성분 HFCs(High Frequency components)라고 한다. 파도소리는 사람에게 안정감 과 알파파를 유도한다고 알려졌는데 이러한 이유는 파도소리에 초음파 성분이 매우 많다는 것이다. 이러한 초음 파가 파도소리와 합쳐질 때 쾌감을 주고 알파파 증가와 베타파가 감소하는 초고주파효과(hypersonic effect)라고 한다. 본 실험에서는 파도소리를 들려주면서 동시에 파도소리에 해당되는 초음파부분을 전자회로로 설계하여 인위적으로 파도소리의 초음파 성분과 유사하도록 제작하여 실험하였다. 뇌파는 8채널을 사용하여 Fp1, Fp2, F3, F4, T3, T4, O1, O2 의 총 8개 전극을 부착하였다. 뇌파에서는 집중이나 긴장이완 등이 나타날 때 알파파가 나타 나며 각성상태나 긴장상태 그리고 스트레스상태에서는 주로 베타파가 나타난다. 초음파 실험결과 연구대상자들 의 알파파가 증가하고 베타파가 감소하는 현상이 통계적으로 유의미하게 나타났으며 초고주파현상이 반영되는 결과가 나타났다.

휨이나 압축에 저항할 수 없는 막재료에 적절한 장력을 도입함으로써 안정화 되는 막구조물은, 유지 관리면에 있어서 막면에 도입되어 있는 장력을 설계대로 유지하는 것이 매우 중요하지만, 준공후 막면에 도입되어 있는 장력을 정확하게 파악하기가 어렵다. 저자들은, 직방형의 경계를 가지는 막을 가청역의 음파를 이용해 진동시키고, 진동하는 막의 공진진동수를 측정함으로써 간접적으로 막장력을 측정하는 방법을 제안하고, 막을 진동시키는 음파로서 정현파와 화이트 노이즈를 이용해 검증실험을 해 왔다. 본 논문은 주요 막재료를 이용해 행한 막장력 측정 이론의 검증을 위한 실험 결과와, 실재하는 막구조물의 장력측정을 통해, 본 측정장치의 정확성과 폭 넓은 적용성 및 측정에 있어서의 안정성을 검증한다.

Regulation of fruit ripening may help extend fruit shelf life and prevent losses due to spoilage. Here, we investigated whether sound treatment could delay tomato fruit ripening. We treated harvested tomato fruits with low-frequency sound waves (1 kHz) for 6 h, and then monitored various characteristics of the fruits over 14-day period at 23±1°C. Seven days after the treatment, 85% of the treated fruits were green, versus fewer than 50% of the non-treated fruits. Most of the tomato fruits had switched to the red ripening stage by 14 days after treatment. Ethylene production and respiration rate were lower in the treated than non-treated tomatoes. Furthermore, changes in surface color and flesh firmness were delayed in the treated fruits. To investigate how sound wave treatment affects fruit ripening, we analyzed the expression of ethylene-related genes by quantitative real-time RT-PCR analysis. We found that the expression level of several ethylene biosynthetic and ethylene signaling pathway-related genes was influenced by sound wave treatment. These results demonstrate that sound wave treatment delays tomato fruit ripening by altering the expression of important genes in the ethylene biosynthesis and ethylene signaling pathways.

We investigated whether sound waves could improve salt tolerance in rice seedling. The rice seedlings were sound treated with 800 Hz for 1hr, and then treated with 0, 75, 150, and 225mM NaCl for 3 days to observe changes in physiological and morphological aspects. Sound treatment seedlings resulted in enhanced salt stress tolerance, mainly demonstrated by the sound treated seedlings exhibiting of increased root relative water contents (RWC), root length and weight, photochemical efficiency (ratio of variable to maximum fluorescence, Fv/Fm), and germination rate under salt stress condition. This demonstrates that a specific sound wave might be used, not only to alter gene expression in plant, but also to improve salt stress tolerance. In order to test the sound’s effect on plant and its contribution in drought tolerance, plants were subjected to various sound frequencies for an hrs. After 24-hrs sound treatment, plants were exposed to drought for next five days. During the experiment it was observed that sound initiated physiological changes showing tolerance in plant. Sound frequency with ≥ 0.8 kHz enhanced relative water content, stomatal conductance and quantum yield of PSII (Fv/Fm ratio) in drought stress environment. Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) production in sound treated plantwasdeclinedcomparedtocontrol. ThermaCAM (Infra-red camera) a software which was used to analyze the plant images temperature showed that sound treated plant and leaf had less temperature (heat) compared to control. The physiological mechanism of sound frequencies induce tolerance in rice plants are discussed.

Sound and communication through it have significantly contributed to study the ecology, evolution, behavior in animal. Plants may also use sound, but until now, we have been unable to effectively research what the ecological, evolutionary and molecular implications might be in plant. So, we wonder what genes are regulated under sound wave conditions. In particular, our research was centered to increase functional materials including vitamins and anthocyanin in plants. First, we investigated up- and down-regulated genes under sound wave treatments (250, 500, 800, 1000 and 1500Hz) by RNA-seq in Arabidopsis thaliana. In these results, we selected genes of over 8-fold increase and below 8-fold decrease and especially, focus on vitamin and anthocyanin-related genes in RNA-seq level. Second, we confirmed that these up- and down-regulated genes under sound wave treatments by qRT-PCR. Finally, we selected 13 interesting genes. To confirm these results, now, we are performing promoter assay by using promoter-GUS in plant and by using promoter-luciferase in protoplast. After then, we will find to interacting partners of these genes in sound wave signal. Our final goal is understand signaling network under sound wave treatment condition in plant. We hope that if we do find results that suggest that sound wave have a beneficial effect on crop yield and quality, acoustic biology can then have some viable application in agriculture. This could bring new discoveries into development of farming methods.

We investigated whether sound could alter gene expression in plants. Using a sound-treated subtractive library, a set of sound-responsive genes in plants was demonstrated through mRNA expression analyses. Of them, the rbcS and ald genes, which are light responsive, up-regulated their expression with sound treatment in both light and in dark conditions. This suggested that sound could be used as a gene regulator instead of light. When we analyzed ald gene expression using various single wavelengths, a significant increase in mRNA levels was found at 125 or 250 Hz but decreased at 50 Hz, indicating that the gene responded to sound in a wavelength-specific manner. To determine whether the ald promoter respond to sound, we generated transgenic rice plants harboring the chimeric gene consisting of a 1,506-bp promoter fragment of the ald gene fused to Escherichia coli GUS reporter gene. Analyses of mRNA expressison level of three independent transgenic lines sound-treated with 50 or 250 Hz for 4 h showed that the Gus gene expression in all three transgenic lines was up regulated by 250 Hz, but down regulated by 50 Hz. These results correlated with sound responsive mRNA expression pattern observed for the ald gene in rice plants, indicating that the 1,506-bp ald promoter confers sound-responsiveness on a reporter gene in transgenic rice plants. We also investigated whether sound waves could improve salt tolerance in rice seedling. The rice seedlings were sound treated with 800 Hz for 1hr, and then treated with 0, 75, 150, and 225mM NaCl for 3 days to observe changes in physiological and morphological aspects. Sound treatment seedlings resulted in enhanced salt stress tolerance, mainly demonstrated by the sound treated seedlings exhibiting of increased root relative water contents (RWC), root length and weight, photochemical efficiency (ratio of variable to maximum fluorescence, Fv/Fm), and germination rate under salt stress condition. This demonstrates that a specific sound wave might be used, not only to alter gene expression in plant, but also to improve salt stress tolerance.