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US 10,378,254 B1Granted
Vehicle door handle having proximity sensors for door control and keypad
AssigneeFord Global Technologies, LLC
InventorsStuart C. Salter, Kosta Papanikolaou, Paul Kenneth Dellock, David Brian Glickman
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A vehicle door handle is provided that includes a handle body having inner and outer sides, keypad contacts on the outer side, and a plurality of proximity sensors disposed on the handle body to generate sense activation fields extending on the inner and outer sides. The vehicle door handle also includes a controller processing signals generated by the sensors to determine a handle pull on the inner side and a keypad input on the outer side.
Claims17
A vehicle door handle comprising:
- a handle body having first and second sides;
- a plurality of proximity sensors disposed on the handle body and generating activation fields, wherein each of the plurality of proximity sensors generates an activation field on both the first and second sides;
- wherein the first side of the handle body is an inner side and the second side of the handle body is an outer side;
- a beam shaping shield located between the sensors and the outer side to generate a narrower sensing field on the outer side of the handle hod as compared to the inner side of the handle body for each proximity sensor, and
- a controller processing signals generated by the sensors to determine a handle pull on the first side and a keypad input on the second side.
2 more elements
A vehicle door handle comprising:
- a handle body having inner and outer sides;
- keypad contacts on the outer side;
- a plurality of proximity sensors disposed on the handle body to generate activation fields extending on the inner and outer sides, wherein each of the plurality of proximity sensors generates an activation field on both the inner and outer sides;
- a beam shaping shield located between the sensors and the outer side to generate a narrower beam sensing field on the outer side of the handle body as compared to the inner side of the handle body for each proximity sensor, and
- a controller processing signals generated by the sensors to determine a handle pull on the inner side and a keypad input on the outer side.
2 more elements
A vehicle door handle comprising:
- a handle body having inner and outer sides;
- a plurality of proximity sensors disposed on the handle body and generating activation fields;
- a controller processing signals generated by the sensors to determine a handle pull on the inner side and a keypad input on the outer side;
- and
- a beam shaping shield located between the sensors and the outer side to generate a narrower sensing field on the outer side of the handle body as compared to the inner side of the handle body for each proximity sensor.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.