Vehicle device having a base vehicle and a seat unit
AssigneeAutoliv Development AB
InventorZiad Alkhoury
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A vehicle device comprising a base vehicle and a seat unit being releasably connectable to the base vehicle is described. The base vehicle comprises an electronic control means and a vehicle-side wireless communication means, and the seat unit comprises at least one sensor, a battery, an electronic unit, and a seat-side wireless communication means. In order to provide the electronic control means of the base vehicle with the necessary information about the seat unit in an energy-saving manner, the electronic unit reads-out the status of the at least one sensor in a certain time-scheme and transmits a sensor related signal via the seat-side wireless communications means only if the status of the sensor changed since the previous read-out.
Claims11
A vehicle device comprising:
- a base vehicle and a seat unit being releasably connectable to the base vehicle, wherein the base vehicle comprises an electronic control means and a vehicle-side wireless communication means connected to the electronic control means, and the seat unit comprises:
- a seat element;
- a sensor;
- an electronic unit comprising:
- (a) a timing means for generating time-spaced wake-up signals S(t);
- (b) a read-out means for reading out the sensor to retrieve values V(t) from the sensor;
- (c) a storage means;
- (d) a comparing means;
- (e) a seat-side wireless communication means adapted for wireless communication with the vehicle-side wireless communication means;
- and,
- a battery for supplying the electronic unit with electrical power, wherein:
- (i) the read-out means according to (b) reads out the value V(t) after having received a wake-up signal S(t) according to (a);
- (ii) the comparing means according to (d) compares the value V(t) according to (i) with a stored value Vs stored in the storage means according to (c);
- (iii) the seat-side wireless communications means according to (e) sends out a signal representing the value V(t) if V(t)≠Vs and sends out an alive-signal other than the signal representing the value V(t) if V(t)=Vs;
- wherein the alive-signal is distinct from any sensor-related signal, the base vehicle does not send an acknowledgement in response to the alive-signal, and the electronic unit immediately returns to a first state (sleep mode) after transmitting the alive-signal;
- and,
- (iv) the value V(t) is stored as the new stored value Vs if V(t)≠Vs.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.