Occupant comfort system
First Claim
1. An occupant support for use in a vehicle, the occupant support comprisinga seat base adapted to couple with the vehicle for movement with the vehicle,a seat coupled with the seat base for movement with the seat base, the seat including a seat bottom and a seat back, the seat bottom having a first lateral side, a second lateral side spaced apart from the first lateral side, a fore end, and an aft end spaced apart from the fore end, the seat back arranged to extend upwardly and away from the aft end of the seat bottom, and the seat bottom and seat back cooperate to define a support surface adapted to support an occupant of the occupant support thereon, andmotion-sickness mitigation means for facilitating relative movement between the support surface of the seat and the seat base in response to an acceleration acting on the seat base to reduce at least one of lateral acceleration and fore-and-aft acceleration of the occupant during acceleration of the seat base so that motion sickness experienced by the occupant is minimized.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An occupant support includes a seat coupled to a seat base. The seat includes a seat bottom and a seat back. The seat back is coupled to the seat bottom to extend upwardly away from the seat bottom. Motion-sickness mitigation means facilitates relative movement between a support surface of the seat and the seat base.
92 Citations
18 Claims
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1. An occupant support for use in a vehicle, the occupant support comprising
a seat base adapted to couple with the vehicle for movement with the vehicle, a seat coupled with the seat base for movement with the seat base, the seat including a seat bottom and a seat back, the seat bottom having a first lateral side, a second lateral side spaced apart from the first lateral side, a fore end, and an aft end spaced apart from the fore end, the seat back arranged to extend upwardly and away from the aft end of the seat bottom, and the seat bottom and seat back cooperate to define a support surface adapted to support an occupant of the occupant support thereon, and motion-sickness mitigation means for facilitating relative movement between the support surface of the seat and the seat base in response to an acceleration acting on the seat base to reduce at least one of lateral acceleration and fore-and-aft acceleration of the occupant during acceleration of the seat base so that motion sickness experienced by the occupant is minimized.
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9. An occupant support for use in a vehicle, the occupant support comprising
a seat base adapted to couple with the vehicle for movement with the vehicle, a seat coupled with the seat base for movement with the seat base, the seat including a seat bottom and a seat back, the seat bottom having a first lateral side, a second lateral side spaced apart from the first lateral side, a fore end, and an aft end spaced apart from the fore end, the seat back arranged to extend upwardly and away from the aft end of the seat bottom, and the seat bottom and seat back cooperate to define a support surface adapted to support an occupant of the occupant support thereon, and motion-sickness mitigation means for facilitating relative movement between the support surface of the seat and the seat base in response to an acceleration acting on the seat base to reduce at least one of lateral acceleration and fore-and-aft acceleration of the occupant during acceleration of the seat base so that motion sickness experienced by the occupant is minimized, wherein the motion-sickness mitigation means includes an adjustable seat cushion coupled to the seat bottom and the adjustable seat cushion is configured to move the support surface of the seat relative to the seat base.
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11. An occupant support comprising
a seat base, a seat coupled with the seat base for movement with the seat base, and a motion-sickness mitigation system configured to at least one of translate and tilt the seat relative to the seat base in response to an acceleration of the seat base, wherein a controller is configured to translate the seat bottom in an aft direction in response to the seat experiencing forward acceleration.
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16. A method comprising
providing a seat base and a seat that defines a support surface adapted to support an occupant thereon, and moving the support surface of the seat relative to the seat base from a first position to a second position in response to an acceleration of the seat base during acceleration of the seat base wherein the moving step includes translating the support surface relative to the seat base.
Specification