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US 6,199,904 B1Granted
Detecting automobile seat occupant by microwave absorption
AssigneeFord Global Technologies, LLC
InventorJames Michael Dosdall
Life of this patent
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AssigneeFord Global Technologies, LLC
InventorJames Michael Dosdall
Estimating the term…
A system (10) and method (100) for detecting (104) a vehicle occupant (12) in order to determine (108) a deployment force of a vehicle's air bag system. The system (10) of the present invention has a microwave emitter (20) that emits (102) low power microwaves in short duty cycle pulses at a target (14) having a reflective surface (24) therein. A detector (20) is used to detect (104) microwaves that are reflected from the target (14). Should a human occupant (12) be present in the vehicle, the microwaves will be absorbed by the occupant and according to the method (100) of the present invention, the position, size and weight of the occupant can be determined based on calibrating (106) the detected microwaves. The calibrated data is used to calculate (106) a deployment force for the air bag (17).
A motor vehicle occupant detection system comprising:
A method for determining air bag deployment force in a motor vehicle having a motor vehicle occupant detection system comprising a microwave emitter positioned in the motor vehicle for emitting microwaves that produce a predefined pattern aimed at a target, a reflective surface located at said target, and a detector positioned in the motor vehicle for detecting emitted microwaves that are reflected by said reflective surface;
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.