Seat occupant identifying apparatus designed to compensating for aging-caused error
First Claim
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1. A seat occupant identifying apparatus for a vehicle comprising:
- a load sensor responsive to a physical load acting on a seat of a vehicle which arises from occupancy of the seat by a passenger to provide an output indicative thereof;
a seat occupant identifying circuit working to identify the passenger on the seat based on comparison of the output of said load sensor with a passenger identifying threshold value;
an aging-caused drift estimating circuit working to estimate an aging-caused drift of an actual output of said load sensor when the seat is unoccupied which arises from aging of said load sensor; and
a threshold correcting circuit working to correct the passenger identifying threshold value based on the aging-caused drift estimated by said aging-caused drift estimating circuit.
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Abstract
A seat occupant identifying apparatus for automotive occupant restraint system is provided which is designed to identify whether a seat occupant is an adult or a child based on comparison of an output of a seat load sensor with an adult identifying threshold value. The seat occupant identifying apparatus works to correct the adult identifying threshold value based on a drift of the output of the seat load sensor when the seat is unoccupied which arises aging of the apparatus, thereby compensating for an aging-caused error in identifying the seat occupant.
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Citations
8 Claims
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1. A seat occupant identifying apparatus for a vehicle comprising:
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a load sensor responsive to a physical load acting on a seat of a vehicle which arises from occupancy of the seat by a passenger to provide an output indicative thereof;
a seat occupant identifying circuit working to identify the passenger on the seat based on comparison of the output of said load sensor with a passenger identifying threshold value;
an aging-caused drift estimating circuit working to estimate an aging-caused drift of an actual output of said load sensor when the seat is unoccupied which arises from aging of said load sensor; and
a threshold correcting circuit working to correct the passenger identifying threshold value based on the aging-caused drift estimated by said aging-caused drift estimating circuit. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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Specification