Seat
AssigneeSubaru Corporation
InventorNaomichi Sawada
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A seat includes a seat surface member, a seat back, a rigidity changer, a steering operation prediction unit, and a rigidity change controller. On the seat surface member, a waist and thighs of an occupant who is to perform steering operation on a vehicle are to be placed. The seat back is configured to abut on a back of the occupant. A rigidity changer is configured to change rigidity of a part of the seat back abutting on the vicinity of shoulder blades of the occupant. A steering operation prediction unit is configured to predict whether the steering operation is performed. A rigidity change controller is configured to control the rigidity changer to enhance the rigidity before the steering operation is started when it is predicted that the steering operation is performed.
Claims20
A seat in a vehicle, the seat comprising:
- a seat surface member configured to support a waist and thighs of an occupant seated on the seat surface member, the occupant performing a steering operation of the vehicle;
- a seat back configured to abut on a back of the occupant;
- an actuator including:
- an electric motor;
- a reduction gear;
- and
- a mechanism that transforms a rotational motion to a translational motion;
- and
- an actuator control processor that:
- transmits an actuation instruction to the actuator that changes a rigidity of a part of the seat back abutting on a vicinity of shoulder blades of the occupant via operation of the mechanism;
- predicts whether the steering operation is performed;
- and
- controls the actuator that increases the rigidity, via the mechanism, of a part of the seat back abutting on a vicinity of shoulder blades of the occupant before the steering operation is started when it is predicted that the steering operation is performed.
A seat, the seat comprising:
- a seat surface member configured to support a waist and thighs of an occupant seated on the seat surface member, the occupant performing a steering operation of the vehicle;
- a seat back configured to abut on a back of the occupant;
- an actuator including:
- an electric motor;
- a reduction gear;
- and
- a mechanism that transforms a rotational motion to a translational motion;
- and
- circuitry that;
- transmits an actuation instruction to the actuator that changes a rigidity of a part of the seat back abutting on a vicinity of shoulder blades of the occupant via operation of the mechanism;
- predicts whether the steering operation is performed;
- and
- controls the actuator to increase the rigidity, via the mechanism, of a part of the seat back abutting on a vicinity of shoulder blades of the occupant before the steering operation is started when it is predicted that the steering operation is performed.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.