Vehicle door control system

• US 20060214769A1
• Filed: 01/27/2006
• Published: 09/28/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/25/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Original Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Inventors: Shimonomoto, Ifushi, Nakashima, Kazuhiro
• Granted Patent: US 7,868,735 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/5.720
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 25/2036 by using the door logic and door and engine unlock means
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 25/24 using electronic identifiers containing a code not memorised by the user

Abstract

In a vehicle door control system, a vehicle-side unit communicates with a hand-held device and detects an operation on any one of vehicle doors. When a condition for unlocking the doors is satisfied, the vehicle-side unit unlocks the doors. In addition, the vehicle-side unit also automatically opens some specific doors having an automatic door opening/closing function. Thus, the holder of the hand-held device no longer needs to issue another command to execute an operation to automatically open the specific doors. The vehicle side-unit also detects an operation on any doors and communicates with the hand-held device to automatically close and lock the doors, when the holder of the hand-held device leaves the vehicle.

Claims

1. A vehicle door control system comprising a vehicle-side unit and a hand-held device for controlling vehicle doors employed in a vehicle in accordance with a result of collation of an ID code, which is conveyed by a response signal transmitted by the hand-held device in response to a request signal transmitted by the vehicle-side unit, with an ID code registered in the vehicle-side unit,

wherein the vehicle-side unit includes:

a lock-state control section for controlling a lock/unlock state of at least one vehicle door;

an automatic door opening/closing section for automatically carrying out operations to open and close at least the one vehicle door; and

an operation detection section for detecting a predetermined operation carried out by a holder of the hand-held device on any one of the vehicle doors, and

wherein, when the result of the collation of the ID codes is an OK and the operation detection section detects the predetermined operation,

the lock-state control section unlocks at least the one vehicle door from a locked state; and

the automatic door opening/closing section automatically carries out an operation to open at least the one vehicle door from a closed state.

2. The vehicle door control system according to claim 1,

wherein, when the operation detection section detects that the predetermined operation is performed on the one vehicle door, the vehicle-side unit makes a decision whether or not to automatically open a different door other than the one vehicle door based on a mode of the predetermined operation, and

wherein the different vehicle door is also controllable by the automatic door opening/closing section.

3. The vehicle door control system according to claim 2,

wherein, when the operation detection section detects that the predetermined operation is performed on the one vehicle door, the vehicle-side unit makes a decision whether to automatically open only the one vehicle door or also automatically open the different vehicle door based on the mode of the predetermined operation.

4. The vehicle door control system according to claim 2,

wherein, when the operation detection section detects that the predetermined operation is continued for a predetermined period or is repeated a predetermined number of times, the vehicle-side unit makes a decision to automatically open the different vehicle door in addition to the one vehicle door.

5. The vehicle door control system according to claim 1,

wherein, when the operation detection section detects that the predetermined operation is performed on a specified door which is not controllable by the automatic door opening/closing section, the lock-state control section unlocks the vehicle doors and the automatic door opening/closing section automatically opens the one door.

6. The vehicle door control system according to claim 1,

wherein the one vehicle door controllable by the automatic door opening/closing section is a slide type door.

7. The vehicle door control system according to claim 1,

wherein the one vehicle door controllable by the automatic door opening/closing section is a rear door provided at a back portion of the vehicle.

8. The vehicle door control system according to claim 1,

wherein the one vehicle door having the automatic door opening/closing section is a hinge type swing door.

9. The vehicle door control system according to claim 7,

wherein the vehicle-side unit has a communication area in a predetermined range surrounding the vehicle as an area in which duplex communications is carried out between the hand-held device and the vehicle-side unit, and

wherein, when the operation detection section detects the predetermined operation on the rear door, the vehicle-side unit opens the rear door only when the vehicle-side unit is incapable of communicating with the hand-held device.

10. The vehicle door control system according to claim 1,

wherein the request signal is transmitted only after the operation detection section detects the predetermined operation.

11. A vehicle door control system comprising a vehicle-side unit and a hand-held device for controlling vehicle doors employed in a vehicle in accordance with a result of collation of an ID code, which is conveyed by a response signal transmitted by the hand-held device in response to a request signal transmitted by the vehicle-side unit, with an ID code registered in the vehicle-side unit,

wherein the vehicle-side unit includes:

a lock-state control section for controlling a lock/unlock state of at feast one vehicle door;

an automatic door opening/closing section for automatically carrying out operations to open and close at least one vehicle door; and

an operation detection section for detecting a predetermined operation carried out by a holder of the hand-held device on any one of the vehicle doors, and

wherein, when the result of the collation of the ID codes is an OK and the operation detection section detects the predetermined operation,

the automatic door opening/closing section automatically carries out an operation to close at least the one vehicle door from a closed state; and

the lock-state control section locks at least the one vehicle door.

12. The vehicle door control system according to claim 11,

wherein the vehicle-side unit determines whether or not all the vehicle doors have been closed, and locks all the vehicle doors when the vehicle-side unit confirms that all the vehicle doors have been closed.

13. The vehicle door control system according to claim 12,

wherein, when at least any one of the vehicle doors has not been closed, the vehicle-side unit issues a warning without locking all the vehicle doors.

14. The vehicle door control system according to claim 11,

wherein, when the operation detection section detects that the predetermined operation is performed on the one vehicle door, the vehicle-side unit makes a decision whether or not to automatically close a different vehicle door other than the one door based on a mode of the predetermined operation, and

wherein the different vehicle door is also controllable by the automatic door opening/closing section.

15. The vehicle door control system according to claim 14,

wherein, when the operation detection section detects that the predetermined operation is performed on the one vehicle door, the vehicle-side unit makes a decision whether to automatically close only the one vehicle door or also automatically close the different vehicle door based on the mode of the predetermined operation.

16. The vehicle door control system according to claim 14,

wherein, when the operation detection section detects that the predetermined operation is continued for a predetermined period or is repeated a predetermined number of times, the vehicle-side unit makes a decision to automatically close the different vehicle door in addition to the one vehicle door.

17. The vehicle door control system according to claim 11,

wherein, when the operation detection section detects the predetermined operation while the automatic door opening/closing section is carrying out an operation to close the one vehicle door, the vehicle-side unit requests the automatic door opening/closing section to discontinue the operation to close the one vehicle door and switch to an operation to open the one vehicle door.

18. The vehicle door control system according to claim 11,

wherein the one vehicle door controllable by the automatic door opening/closing section is a slide type door.

19. The vehicle door control system according to claim 11,

wherein the one vehicle door controllable by the automatic door opening/closing section is a rear door provided at a back portion of the vehicle.

20. The vehicle door control system according to claim 11,

wherein the one vehicle door having the automatic door opening/closing section is a hinge type swing door.