Occupant Information Detection System, Occupant Restraint System, and Vehicle

• US 20080021616A1
• Filed: 07/19/2006
• Published: 01/24/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 07/19/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Joyson Safety Systems Japan K.K.
• Original Assignee: Takata Corporation (Ningbo Junsheng Investment Group Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Aoki, Hiroshi, Yokoo, Masato, Hakomori, Yuu
• Granted Patent: US 7,630,804 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/45
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 21/0152 using strain gauges
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 21/01538 for image processing, e.g. cameras or sensor arrays
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 21/01552 detecting position of specific human body parts, e.g. face, eyes or hands
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/64 Three-dimensional objects
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/103 Static body considered as a whole, e.g. static pedestrian or occupant recognition

Abstract

A technology is provided which is effective for precisely detecting information about a vehicle occupant in a vehicle seat. In one form, an occupant restraint system to be installed in a vehicle is adapted to associate occupant surface profile information relating to a specific body region of a vehicle occupant, which is obtained by a camera for obtaining an image relating to a single view point, with previously stored body information so as to derive body information about the vehicle occupant and varies the occupant restraining mode of an occupant restraint device according to the derived body information.

Claims

1. A detection apparatus for detecting information about a vehicle occupant, the detection apparatus comprising:

a detection device for detecting information relating to the vehicle occupant;

a storage device for storing information relating to potential vehicle occupants; and

a controller configured to determine positional information relating to the vehicle occupant by associating the detected information with the stored information relating to the potential vehicle occupant.

2. The detection apparatus of claim 1, wherein the detection device comprises a camera, the detected information relating to the vehicle occupant includes body regions of the occupant, the stored information relating to potential vehicle occupants includes positional relations of body regions of human bodies, and the controller is configured to determine the position of the vehicle occupant by comparing a positional relation between adjacent body regions to the positional relation of stored body regions.

3. The detection apparatus of claim 2, wherein one of the body regions is a neck region.

4. The detection apparatus of claim 1, wherein the detection device detects information relating to a vehicle reference region, and the controller includes a vehicle information extraction unit that determines positional information of a vehicle reference region based on the detected vehicle reference region information for determining size of the vehicle occupant.

5. The detection apparatus of claim 4, wherein the vehicle reference region comprises a vehicle seat.

6. The detection apparatus of claim 1, in combination with an occupant protection device, and the controller is operable to selectively actuate the occupant protection device based on the vehicle occupant'"'"'s positional information.

7. The detection apparatus of claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to determine the positional information relating to the vehicle occupant by requiring a predetermined degree of accuracy of association between the detected information and the stored information relating to the potential vehicle occupant.

8. A method of determining information regarding a body region of a vehicle occupant, the method comprising:

detecting information regarding the body region of the vehicle occupant;

associating the information regarding the body region of the vehicle occupant with previously stored information regarding at least one body region of a potential vehicle occupant; and

deriving positional information regarding the vehicle occupant based on the association between the information regarding the body region of the vehicle occupant and the previously stored information regarding the body region of a potential vehicle occupant.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the previously stored information regarding the body region of a potential vehicle occupant includes positional relations of body regions, and the positional information regarding the vehicle occupant is derived by comparing the positional relation between body regions of the vehicle occupant with the positional relations of previously stored information regarding the body region of the potential vehicle occupant.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising selectively controlling a restraint device at least partially dependent on the derived positional information regarding the vehicle occupant.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprising applying predetermined criteria relating to the accuracy of the detected information regarding the vehicle occupant, or the similarity between the detected and the stored information, and the positional information regarding the vehicle occupant is further derived by screening out the unreliable detected information based on the predetermined criteria.

12. The method of claim 8, further comprising obtaining positional information regarding a vehicle reference region;

and

estimating size of the vehicle occupant based on the positional information regarding the vehicle occupant and the positional information regarding the vehicle reference region.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the vehicle reference region is a vehicle seat, and the positional information regarding the vehicle seat is obtained from a seat position detector.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising selectively controlling a restraint device based on the estimated size of the vehicle occupant.

15. The method of claim 8, further comprising selectively controlling a vehicle system using the derived positional information regarding the vehicle occupant.

16. The method of claim 8, further comprising obtaining positional information regarding a vehicle seat;

estimating size of the vehicle occupant based on the positional information regarding the vehicle occupant and the positional information regarding the vehicle seat; and

selectively controlling a restraint device based on the estimated size of the vehicle occupant.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising detecting an emergency condition of the vehicle, wherein the restraint device is further selectively controlled based on the detected emergency.