Loading patent…
AssigneeDelphi Technologies, Inc.
InventorMorgan D. Murphy
Estimating the term…
An improved method of selectively suppressing deployment of a vehicular inflatable restraint utilizes both static and dynamic variation in the measured capacitance of a vehicle occupant in a complementary manner that reduces overall system variability. The decision to allow or suppress deployment of the restraint is determined based on a comparison of the static capacitance reading with at least one threshold, and the dynamic variation of the measured capacitance and other parameters such as seat belt tension, seat humidity and seat temperature are used to adjust the threshold in a direction to minimize the overall variability of the system. In a preferred embodiment, the variation of the measured capacitance with respect to the variation in vertical acceleration of the vehicle is used to estimate the free capacitance of the occupant, and such free capacitance is used to adjust the threshold.
A method of determining whether to allow or suppress deployment of a vehicular inflatable restraint for a vehicle occupant based at least in part on an output signal of a sensor responsive to occupant capacitance relative to a vehicle seat, the method comprising the steps of:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.