Vehicle occupant classification system

A vehicle seat pressure sensor comprising:

• a light source;
• a non-fiber optical polymer sheet of non-woven flexible optical polymer material having a first surface with a peripheral edge surrounding the first surface aligned with the light source such that light emitted from the light source projects into the optical polymer sheet through the peripheral edge;
• a boundary layer disposed along the first surface of the optical polymer sheet;
• and
• a detection unit disposed relative to the optical polymer sheet to detect changes in attenuation of light emitted from the peripheral edge of the optical polymer sheet in response to elastic deformation of the boundary layer and the optical polymer sheet, wherein
• the optical polymer sheet includes a plurality of optical polymer sheet sections defining a plurality of sensing zones with each of the sensing zones at least partially forming a part of the peripheral edge of the optical polymer sheet,
• the light source is configured to emit a separate light beam to each of the sensing zones, and
• the detection unit is disposed to separately detect the separate light beam from each of the sensing zones.