System for detecting the presence and position of hands and/or fingers near a vehicle steering wheel
AssigneesContinental Automotive France, Continental Automotive GmbH
InventorPascal Clochard
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Disclosed is a system for a motor vehicle, including a steering wheel (2) connected to the steering system of the vehicle, the steering wheel including a plurality of optical sensors (7) arranged on the rim (25) of the steering wheel and designed to detect the presence of at least one finger (5) of at least one hand of the driver near or in contact with the rim of the steering wheel, by way of which the system is able to determine the number of fingers near or in contact with the rim of the steering wheel as well as their respective positions on the rim. Also disclosed is a method associated with the device.
Claims20
A method of detecting a presence of at least one hand of a driver near or in contact with a rim (25) of a steering wheel (2) for a motor vehicle, the steering wheel (2) being connected to a steering system of the motor vehicle and equipped with a sensing system including a plurality of optical sensors (7) arranged on the rim (25) of the steering wheel (2), said optical sensors outfitted with infrared transmitting diodes (Tx, 7T) and receiving photodiodes (Rx, 7R), the method comprising:
- a) scanning the optical sensors (7), by
- a1) first capturing of a first light intensity of ambient illumination received by the receiving diodes (Rx, 7R) with the transmitting diodes (Tx, 7T) not being active, and
- a2) activating the transmitting diodes (Tx, 7T) and second capturing of a second light intensity received by the receiving diodes (Rx, 7R) that includes reflected light of an illumination generated by the activated transmitting diodes (Tx, 7T);
- b) deducing, from the first captured light intensity and the second captured light intensity of the scanning, a count of zero or more fingers (5) of the driver near or in contact with the rim (25) of the steering wheel (2);
- and
- c) deducing, from the first captured light intensity and the second captured light intensity of the scanning, a count of zero or more hands of the driver in contact with the steering wheel,
- where steps a), a1), a2), and b) are carried out repeatedly, and real time and continual composite information, including updated counts of the driver's hands and updated counts of the driver's fingers, are provided from the sensing system to a third-party system.
A system for a motor vehicle to detect a presence of at least one hand of a driver near or in contact with a rim (25) of a steering wheel (2) of the steering system of the motor vehicle, comprising:
- a plurality of optical sensors (7) arranged on the rim (25) of the steering wheel (2), the plurality of optical sensors (7) configured to detect a presence of at least one finger (5) of the at least one hand (4) of the driver near or in contact with the rim (25) of the steering wheel (2),
- said optical sensors including infrared transmitting diodes (Tx, 7T) and receiving photodiodes (Rx, 7R);
- and
- an electronic processing unit (8) in communication with the plurality of optical sensors (7), configured to
- repeatedly scan the optical sensors (7), by
- first capturing of a first light intensity of ambient illumination received by the receiving diodes (Rx, 7R) with the transmitting diodes (Tx, 7T) not being active, and
- activating the transmitting diodes (Tx, 7T) and second capturing of a second light intensity received by the receiving diodes (Rx, 7R) that includes reflected light of an illumination generated by the activated transmitting diodes (Tx, 7T),
- by means of which the electronic processing unit (8) determines a number of fingers (5) of the driver near or in contact with the rim (25) of the steering wheel (2) as well as respective positions of the fingers of the driver on the rim (25).
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.