Systems and methods for actuating pillows including actuating muscles
AssigneeToyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc.
InventorsMichael P. Rowe, Ryohei Tsuruta
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An actuating pillow includes a pillow body and a plurality of artificial muscles arranged within the pillow body. Each of the artificial muscles includes a housing having an electrode region and an adjacent expandable fluid region, an electrode pair positioned in the electrode region of the housing, and a dielectric fluid housed within the housing. The plurality of artificial muscles are configured to actuate from a non-actuated state to an actuated state, actuation from the non-actuated state to the actuated state directs the dielectric fluid into the expandable fluid region and increases a height of the pillow body.
Claims18
An actuating pillow comprising:
- a pillow body;
- a plurality of artificial muscles enclosed within the pillow body, each of the plurality of artificial muscles comprises:
- a housing comprising an electrode region and an adjacent expandable fluid region;
- an electrode pair positioned in the electrode region of the housing;
- and
- a dielectric fluid housed within the housing,
- wherein the plurality of artificial muscles are configured to actuate from a non-actuated state to an actuated state, actuation from the non-actuated state to the actuated state directs the dielectric fluid into the expandable fluid region and increases a height of the pillow body.
A vehicle seat system comprising:
- a vehicle seat including a head portion having a forward-facing surface;
- a pillow body coupled to the forward-facing surface of the head portion of the vehicle seat;
- a plurality of artificial muscles enclosed within the pillow body, each of the plurality of artificial muscles comprises:
- a housing comprising an electrode region and an adjacent expandable fluid region;
- an electrode pair positioned in the electrode region of the housing;
- and
- a dielectric fluid housed within the housing,
- a processor;
- and
- a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-readable instructions that, when executed by the processor, causes the processor to:
- determine a position of a force on the pillow body;
- determine a length of time the force is present;
- and
- when the length of time the force is present exceeds an actuation threshold, actuate the electrode pair of at least one of the plurality of artificial muscles from a non-actuated state to an actuated state, and actuate at least one of the plurality of artificial muscles from the actuated state to the non-actuated state, actuation from the non-actuated state to the actuated state directs the dielectric fluid into the expandable fluid region and increases a height of the pillow body.
17-20. (canceled)
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.