Ultrasonic breathing sensor and sensing method for vehicle occupant monitoring
AssigneeSemiconductor Components Industries, LLC
InventorsMarek HUSTAVA, Pavel KOSTELNIK
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Abstract
Breathing sensors, sensing methods, and vehicle occupant monitoring systems may employ ultrasonic transducers. One illustrative sensing method includes: sensing an acoustic transducer's responses to a series of acoustic bursts emitted in a vehicle's cabin; differencing pairs of said responses to obtain difference signals; converting the difference signals into magnitude signals; performing peak detection on each of the magnitude signals to obtain at least one peak amplitude; and providing a breathing signal based on the at least one peak amplitude. The breathing signal may be an occupancy detection flag, an occupant position, a breathing frequency, and/or any combination thereof.
Claims21
A method that comprises:
- sensing an acoustic transducer's responses to a series of acoustic bursts;
- differencing pairs of said responses to obtain difference signals;
- converting the difference signals into magnitude signals;
- performing peak detection on each of the magnitude signals to obtain at least one peak amplitude;
- and
- providing a breathing signal based on the at least one peak amplitude.
A controller for an acoustic transducer, the controller comprising:
- a receiver configured to sense the acoustic transducer's response to each of a series of acoustic bursts;
- and
- a processing circuit configured to derive a breathing signal from said responses in part by:
- obtaining difference signals from pairs of said responses;
- converting each difference signal into a magnitude signal;
- and
- performing peak detection on each said magnitude signal to obtain at least one peak amplitude.
A vehicle that comprises:
- at least one seat configured to accommodate an occupant;
- at least one acoustic transducer configured to receive a series of acoustic burst echoes from the occupant when the occupant is present in the vehicle;
- and
- a controller configured to derive a breathing signal from the series of acoustic burst echoes.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.