On-board vehicle seat capacitive force sensing device and method
First Claim
1. An apparatus, comprising:
- a plurality of capacitive sensors mounted between a base structure of a seat in a vehicle and rails of the seat with each of the plurality of capacitive sensors including;
a capacitor having an upper conductive surface and a lower conductive surface substantially parallel to the upper conductive surface;
a housing with a cover plate to encompass the capacitor; and
a sensor in the housing to generate a measurement based on a change in a distance between the upper conductive surface and the lower conductive surface when the cover plate is deflected by a force applied on the cover plate;
and an airbag associated with the seat to deploy based on at least a weight of an occupant of the seat obtained by aggregating the measurement.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An on-board vehicle seat capacitance force sensing apparatus/method is disclosed. In one embodiment, an apparatus includes capacitive sensors mounted between a base structure of a seat in a vehicle and rails of the seat. Each of the capacitive sensors includes a capacitor having an upper conductive surface and a lower conductive surface substantially parallel to the upper conductive surface, a housing with a cover plate to encompass the capacitor, and a sensor in the housing to generate a measurement based on a change in a distance between the upper conductive surface and the lower conductive surface when the cover plate is deflected by a force applied on the cover plate. The apparatus also includes an airbag associated with the seat to deploy based on a weight of an occupant of the seat obtained by aggregating the measurement.
94 Citations
20 Claims
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1. An apparatus, comprising:
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a plurality of capacitive sensors mounted between a base structure of a seat in a vehicle and rails of the seat with each of the plurality of capacitive sensors including;
a capacitor having an upper conductive surface and a lower conductive surface substantially parallel to the upper conductive surface;
a housing with a cover plate to encompass the capacitor; and
a sensor in the housing to generate a measurement based on a change in a distance between the upper conductive surface and the lower conductive surface when the cover plate is deflected by a force applied on the cover plate;
and an airbag associated with the seat to deploy based on at least a weight of an occupant of the seat obtained by aggregating the measurement. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A method, comprising:
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generating a weight data based on a functional algorithm that considers capacitances produced from a plurality of capacitive sensors mounted under a vehicle seat when a weight of an occupant is applied on the vehicle seat;
calculate a position of the occupant relative to the vehicle seat based on the weight data and a sensory data of the occupant obtained from a plurality of sensors;
classifying the occupant to a category based on the weight data;
processing a crash data in an occupant protection module when a vehicle having the vehicle seat crashes to generate the crash data; and
deploying an airbag based on the category, the position, and the crash data. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A vehicle, comprising:
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a seat mounted on a floor of the vehicle;
a capacitive sensor module mounted under the seat of the vehicle to measure a weight of an occupant of the seat;
an electronic circuit module coupled to the capacitive sensor module to generate a classification data associated with the weight of the occupant and the body temperature of the occupant;
a heat detection module installed on a cover of the seat to measure and communicate a body temperature of the occupant to the electronic circuit module; and
an airbag module to dispense an airbag toward the occupant based on the classification data when a crash sensor receives a trigger data from an accelerometer of the vehicle. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20)
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Specification