System and Method for Preventing Vehicular Accidents
First Claim
1. A motor vehicle, comprising:
- a reactive system for controlling the motion or travel direction of the vehicle; and
an anticipatory sensor system for determining that an impact involving the vehicle is about to occur unless a corrective action is taken based on data obtained prior to the impact and determining whether the potential impact requires activation of said reactive system;
said anticipatory sensor system comprising at least one receiver for receiving waves or energy and a pattern recognition system for analyzing the received waves or energy or data representative of the received waves or energy to determine that an impact is about to occur if corrective action is not taken and to determine whether the potential impact requires activation of said reactive system, said pattern recognition system being arranged to ascertain the identity of an object from which the waves or energy have been emitted, reflected or generated, the determination whether the impact requires activation of said reactive system being at least partially based on the identification of the object, said pattern recognition system comprising a processor embodying a pattern recognition algorithm which provides an output of one of a number of pre-determined identities of the object.
6 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Vehicle including an anticipatory sensor system for determining that an impact involving the vehicle is about to occur unless a corrective action is taken based on data obtained prior to the impact and determining whether the potential impact requires activation of a reactive system which controls operation of the vehicle. The anticipatory sensor system includes a receiver for receiving waves or energy and a pattern recognition system for analyzing the received waves or energy, or data representative thereof, to determine that an impact is about to occur if corrective action is not taken and whether the potential impact requires activation of the reactive system. The pattern recognition system ascertains the identity of an object from which the waves or energy have been emitted, reflected or generated, so that the determination whether the impact requires activation of the reactive system is based on identification of the object.
291 Citations
21 Claims
-
1. A motor vehicle, comprising:
-
a reactive system for controlling the motion or travel direction of the vehicle; and
an anticipatory sensor system for determining that an impact involving the vehicle is about to occur unless a corrective action is taken based on data obtained prior to the impact and determining whether the potential impact requires activation of said reactive system;
said anticipatory sensor system comprising at least one receiver for receiving waves or energy and a pattern recognition system for analyzing the received waves or energy or data representative of the received waves or energy to determine that an impact is about to occur if corrective action is not taken and to determine whether the potential impact requires activation of said reactive system, said pattern recognition system being arranged to ascertain the identity of an object from which the waves or energy have been emitted, reflected or generated, the determination whether the impact requires activation of said reactive system being at least partially based on the identification of the object, said pattern recognition system comprising a processor embodying a pattern recognition algorithm which provides an output of one of a number of pre-determined identities of the object. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
-
-
14. A method for protecting an occupant of a vehicle during an impact between the vehicle and an object, comprising:
-
determining that an impact involving the vehicle is about to occur if corrective action is not taken prior to the impact;
determining whether the impact requires activation of a reactive system for controlling motion or travel direction of the vehicle, the step of determining whether the impact requires activation of the reactive system comprising;
receiving waves or energy from the object, and ascertaining the identity of the object based on the received waves or energy by inputting the received waves or energy or data representative of the received waves or energy into a pattern recognition algorithm which ascertains the identity of the object based thereon, the pattern recognition algorithm being designed to provide an output of one of a number of pre-determined identities of the object; and
activating the reactive system when the impact is determined to require such activation. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21)
-
-
19. The method of clam 16, further comprising determining an intensity of the infrared waves based at least in part on a distance to the reflecting object.
Specification