Occupant monitoring apparatus

• US 20050055145A1
• Filed: 05/05/2004
• Published: 03/10/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 05/06/2003
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha (Mitsubishi Electric Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha (Mitsubishi Electric Corporation)
• Inventors: Bober, Miroslaw, Zaharia, Ramona
• Application Number:
  US10/838,370
• Publication Number:
  US 20050055145A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/45
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2562/0247 Pressure sensors
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2562/046 in a matrix array
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/18 for vehicle drivers or machine operators
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7264 Classification of physiological signals or data, e.g. using neural networks, statistical classifiers, expert systems or fuzzy systems neural networks per se G06N3/00; expert systems per se G06N5/00
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7267 involving training the classification device
• CPC Class Codes: B60N 2/002 Seats provided with an occupancy detection means mounted therein or thereon detection means responsive to presence or absence of children B60N2/266
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 21/01516 using force or pressure sensing means
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 21/0152 using strain gauges
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 21/01532 using electric or capacitive field sensors
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/20 for computer-aided diagnosis, e.g. based on medical expert systems

Abstract

A seat occupant monitoring apparatus which includes a sensor reactive to a force distribution applied to the seat by the occupant, means for making a plurality of measurements of the force distribution and means for monitoring the occupant based on the measurements. The measurements are used to classify the occupant and on a basis of the classification, parameters of the occupant'"'"'s environment such as a seat orientation, the rate of deployment of an air bag or control of a seat belt pre-tensioner are altered. A neural network or other learning based technique is used for the classification.

Claims

1. A method of monitoring a seat occupant which includes the steps of making a plurality of measurements of at least one sensor reactive to a force on the seat, each measurement being dependent on the force applied over substantially all the sensor and being a respective different function of the force distribution, and classifying the force distribution on the basis of the measurements.

2. The method according to claim 1 wherein each function is dependent on a location at which the corresponding measurement is taken.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2 wherein the measurements are measurements of resistance.

4. The method according to claim 3 wherein the sensor includes a plurality of electrodes and each measurement represents a resistance measured between a respective pair of electrodes.

5. The method according to claim 1 which includes the step of storing each measurement together with a measurement identifier representing the respective measurement function.

6. The method according to claim 1 wherein the step of classifying the force distribution includes the step of using a trained classifier.

7. The method according to claim 6 wherein the classifier has been trained using a neural network.

8. The method according to claim 6 wherein the classifier has been trained using a support vector machine.

9. The method according to claim 1 wherein a type of occupant is classified according to the classification of the force distribution.

10. The method according to claim 1 wherein a location or orientation of the occupant is classified according to the classification of the force distribution.

11. The method according to claim 1 which includes the step of altering the occupant'"'"'s environment according to the classification of the occupant.

12. The method according to claim 11 wherein the seat is a vehicle seat and which includes the step of varying anyone or more of air bag deployment, seat belt pre-tensioner or information presentation according to the classification of the occupant.

13. Apparatus for monitoring a seat occupant, the apparatus being adapted to carry out the method of any preceding claim.

14. A sensor which includes a pad, at least one electrical property of the pad varying according to a force applied to the pad, a plurality of electrodes attached to the pad and measurement means attached to the electrodes for making a plurality of measurements of said electrical property, wherein each measurement is dependent on the force applied over substantially all of the pad and is a respective different function of the force distribution over the pad.