Vehicle occupant safety system
AssigneeKey Safety Systems, Inc.
InventorsTony Gioutsos, Daniel N. Tabar
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A vehicle occupant safety system includes a crash severity determination system and one or more vehicle occupant safety devices. The crash severity determination system includes at least one crash sensor which generates a crash signal based upon the severity of the crash. A continuously variable crash severity output signal is generated based upon the crash signal from the crash sensor. Generally, for a given crash type, the crash severity signal is inversely proportional to the amount of time between the beginning of the crash and when the crash signal crosses a threshold. This continuously variable crash severity signal is sent to the vehicle occupant safety devices, which activate proportionally to the crash severity signal.
Claims14
A crash determination system comprising:
- a crash sensor generating a crash signal based upon a severity of a crash, the crash determination system generating a continuously variable crash severity signal indicative of the severity of the crash based upon the crash signal, wherein the crash determination system determines a crash type, the crash severity signal being a graded uninterrupted signal inducing different intermediate values between two extremes as a function of the crash type determined by the crash determination system, wherein the crash determination system sends the crash severity signal to an occupant safety device.
A method for determining a severity of a crash of a vehicle including the steps of:
- a. generating a crash signal in response to a crash;
- b. comparing the crash signal to a threshold;
- c. determining a time period to when the crash signal reaches the threshold;
- d. generating a crash severity signal indicative of a severity of the crash based upon the time period, the crash severity signal being a graded uninterupted signal including different intermediate values between an upper extreme and a lower extreme;
- and
- e. sending the crash severity signal to an analog occupant safety device.
A method for determining a severity of a crash of a vehicle including the steps of:
- a. generating a crash signal;
- b. comparing the crash signal to a threshold;
- c. determining a time period in which the crash signal reaches the threshold;
- d. calculating a continuously variable crash severity signal representing a severity of the crash as inversely proportional to the time period, the crash severity signal being a continuously variable, graded signal including different between upper and lower values;
- and
- e. sending the crash severity signal to a continuously variable occupant safety device.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.