• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.40 no.10
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• pp.916-921
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• 2016

It is possible for humans to breathe underwater using dissolved oxygen. However, unlike fish, humans need large amounts of oxygen to breathe underwater. Water generally contains small amounts of dissolved oxygen. To get enough dissolved oxygen from water, great volumes of it should be supplied into a separation device. If exhalation gases are used, the amounts of water supplied into the membrane can be decreased. However, the characteristics of exhalation gases after passage through the separation device need to be investigated. To reuse the exhalation gases, the concentration of carbon dioxide should be decreased. A compressor is needed to supply the exhalation gases because of the high pressure generated in the membrane inlet. However, compressors require a lot of power and are heavy, so it is not proper to get the portable separation device. A system without the compressor is needed. If the pressure of the position mixed from the exhalation is less than atmosphere, the compressor is not needed. In this thesis, characteristics of the gases which are mixed with exhalation gases and separated from water after passing the membrane are investigated. The compositions of carbon dioxide, oxygen, and nitrogen are measured with the gas chromatography. The effects of water and exhalation gas flow rates on characteristics of gases separated from water after the membrane are showed.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.40 no.9
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• pp.842-846
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• 2016

It's possible for a human to breathe under water, but the amount of dissolved oxygen in the water is small and a large amount of water is necessary to obtain sufficient dissolved oxygen from water. So, large separation system with large water pumps, having large surface areas, and large battery sources are needed. Exhalation gases are used to solve this problem. Theses gases contain some oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide; they contain less oxygen and more carbon dioxide compared to air. Therefore, reduction of the amount of carbon dioxide is necessary. If exhalation gases are employed appropriately, the separation device can be made more compact. Inlet water mixed with exhalation gases is supplied into the separation device, and dissolved gases are separated from the mixed water as it passes through the device. The inlet part of a typical separation system with a water delivery pump before the membrane module has more than one atmosphere. Hence, a compressor is used to mix the exhalation gases. In this study, the pressure at the inlet due to the use of a suction pump after the membrane module was less than one atmosphere; hence, compressors were not required. Separation characteristics were studied using a separation device without a compressor. The use of exhalation gases led to an increase in the amount of dissolved gases being separated. As the amount of inlet exhalation gases was increased, the separation of dissolved gases was increased as well.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.38 no.10
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• pp.1347-1353
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• 2014

It's possible for a human to breathe under water, if dissolved oxygen is effectively used. Fish can stay under water using the gill which extracts dissolved oxygen from water. Water includes small amounts of oxygen, so a human needs larger amounts of water to acquire oxygen enough for underwater breathing. The exhalation gas from a human is another method to get higher amounts of oxygen under water. It mainly composes of oxygen, nitrogen and carbon dioxide. So, if only carbon dioxide is decreased, the exhalation gas has good characteristics for breathing of a human under water. In this paper, composition of the exhalation gas from a human was analyzed using GC. Based on these results, the synthesized gas was prepared and mixed into water which was used for experimental devices to analyze separation characteristics of dissolved gases from water. Experimental devices included a water pump, a hollow fiber membrane module and a vacuum pump. The effects of pressure and water flow on separation characteristics of synthesized gas were investigated. The compositions of gases separated from water using synthesized gas were investigated using GC. These results expect to be applied to the development of underwater breathing technology for a human.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.300-304
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• 2011

Exhaled breath gases include gases generated in the body. When there is disease in the body, exhalation can include gas components from the disease. If we can find these specific elements through analysis of the exhalation gases, this can be an effective way to diagnose the disease. The lung has a close relationship with exhalation. Lung cancer refers to malignant tumors which originate in the lungs. Exhalation from the lung causes direct jets of gas to be ejected through the mouth and nose, so by analyzing these jets it may be possible to diagnose lung cancer. In our study we attempt to diagnose lung cancer from patient's exhaled gases. Exhalation of lung cancer patients was analyzed using gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy(GC-MS) and the expiratory gas was also measured using a sensor system. The system was designed to use a metal oxide sensor and solid phase micro extraction(SPME) fiber. The GC-MS analysis of the healthy subject's and cancer patient's exhalation gases both showed the presence of decane in the breath of patients with lung cancer. In addition, the results from the sensor system showed significant difference between the lung cancer patients and the healthy subjects.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.219-222
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• 2013

The exhaled breath contains gases generated from human body. When disease occurs in the body, exhaled breath may include gas components released from disease metabolism. If we can find specific elements through analysis of the exhaled gases, this approach is an effective way to diagnose the disease. The lung function has a close relationship with exhalation. Exhaled gases from COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) patients can be analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy (GC-MS) and a gas sensor system. The exhaled breath for healthy person and COPD patients had different components. Significantly more benzendicarboxylic acid was detected from COPD patients than in healthy persons. In addition, patients had a variety of decane. Phosphorous compounds with different isomers were detected from patients. The results obtained by gas sensor system were processed by PCA (Principal Component Analysis). The PCA results revealed distinct difference between the patients and healthy people.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.291-298
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• 2021

In this study, we present a multi-sensor module for snake robot searching survivors in a narrow space. To this end, we integrated five sensor systems by considering the opinions of the first responders: a gas sensor to detect CO₂ gases from the exhalation of survivors, a CMOS camera to provide the image of survivors, an IR camera to see in the dark & smoky environment, two microphones to detect the voice of survivors, and an IMU to recognize the approximate location and direction of the robot and survivors. Furthermore, we integrated a speaker into the sensor module system to provide a communication channel between the first responders and survivors. To integrated all these mechatronics systems in a small, compact snake head, we optimized the positions of the sensors and designed a stacked structure for the whole system. We also developed a user-friendly GUI to show the information from the proposed sensor systems visually. Experimental results verified the searching function of the proposed sensor module system.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.331-336
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• 2007

In this study, we have fabricated an infrared optical fiber based sensor which can monitor the respiration of a patient. The design of a chalcogenide optical fiber based sensor is suitable for insertion into a high electro-magnetic field environment because the sensor consists of low cost and compact mid-infrared components such as an infrared light source, a chalcogenide optical fiber and a thermopile sensor. A fiber-optic respiration sensor is capable of detecting carbon dioxide ($CO_{2}$) in exhalation of a patient using the infrared absorption characteristics of carbon gases. The modulated infrared radiation due to the presence of carbon dioxide is guided to the thermopile sensor via a chalcogenide receiving fiber. It is expected that a mid-infrared fiber-optic respiration sensor which can be developed based on the results of this study would be highly suitable for respiration measurements of a patient during the procedure of an MRI.