Occupant and infant seat detection in a vehicle supplemental restraint system
AssigneeEchlin Inc.
InventorsJack B. Meister, Bruce L. Walcott
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An automotive vehicle supplemental restraint system that includes an air bag positioned within the vehicle opposite the passenger side of the front seat, and electronics coupled to one or more impact sensors for activating the air bag in the event of a vehicle impact. Occupancy sensors are provided at the passenger seat for sensing seat occupancy and inhibiting activation of the air bag when the seat is either unoccupied or occupied by a rear-facing infant seat. System status is displayed to a vehicle operator, and the operator is provided with an opportunity to override the occupancy sensors and enable activation of the air bag.
Claims15
In an automotive vehicle supplemental restraint system that includes an air bag positioned within the vehicle opposite a predetermined vehicle seat position and means for activating the air bag in the event of vehicle impact, a method of controlling air bag deployment comprising the steps of:
- (a) sensing when said predetermined vehicle seat position is unoccupied,
- (b) sensing when said predetermined vehicle seat position is occupied by a rear-facing infant seat,
- (c) inhibiting activation of said air bag when said predetermined vehicle seat position is sensed as unoccupied in said step (a) or occupied in said step (b) by a rear-facing infant seat,
- (d) indicating to a vehicle operator that activation of the air bag is inhibited in said step (c), and
- (e) providing means for the vehicle operator to override said step (c) and enable activation of said air bag independent of said steps (a) and (b).
In an automotive vehicle supplemental restraint system that includes an air bag positioned within a vehicle opposite a predetermined vehicle seat position and means for activating the air bag in the event of vehicle impact, a method of controlling activation of the air bag comprising the steps of:
- (a) providing a plurality of individual sensors disposed in an array at said predetermined seat position for supplying output electrical signals as a function of weight supported at each said sensor, each of said sensors comprising a permanent magnet, a linear Hall effect sensor and means resiliently separating said magnet from said sensor, and
- (b) controlling deployment of the air bag as a combined function of said sensor output signals.
An automotive vehicle supplemental restraint system that includes an air bag positioned within a vehicle opposite a predetermined vehicle seat position, means for activating the air bag in the event of vehicle impact, and deployment control means comprising:
- a plurality of sensors disposed in an array at said predetermined seat position, each of said sensors being adapted to provide a corresponding electrical output signal as a function of weight supported at said seat position,
- each of said sensors comprising a permanent magnet, sensing means for generating said electrical output signal as a function of magnetic field strength, and means resiliently spacing said magnet with respect to said magnetic sensing means, and
- means coupled to said sensors for operating said bag-activating means as a combined function of said sensor output signals.
An automotive vehicle supplemental restraint system that includes:
- an air bag positioned within a vehicle opposite a predetermined vehicle seat position, means for activating the air bag in the event of vehicle impact, and deployment control means for preventing activation of the air bag when the seat is unoccupied or occupied by a rear-facing infant seat, said deployment control means comprising:
- first means for disposition at said predetermined vehicle seat position for sensing occupancy of said seat position and for indicating disposition of a rear-facing infant seat at said predetermined vehicle seat position,
- second means coupled to said first means for inhibiting deployment of said air bag when a rear-facing infant seat is disposed at said predetermined vehicle seat position, and otherwise enabling deployment of said air bag when said predetermined vehicle seat position is occupied as indicated by said first means and said first means does not indicate a rear-facing infant seat at said predetermined vehicle seat position,
- third means for indicating to a vehicle operator that activation of said air bag has been inhibited by said second means, and
- fourth means for permitting the vehicle operator to override said second means and enable activation of said air bag independent of said first means.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.