System, Methodologies, and Components Acquiring, Analyzing, and Using Occupant Body Specifications for Improved Seating Structures and Environment Configuration

• US 20120086249A1
• Filed: 10/06/2011
• Published: 04/12/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/07/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Faurecia Automotive Seating, LLC (Forvia SE)
• Original Assignee: Faurecia Automotive Seating, Inc. (Forvia SE)
• Inventors: Hotary, James T., Fitzpatrick, Robert C., Lowell, Dana J., Brncick, Gregory, Baudu, Samuel
• Granted Patent: US 8,958,955 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 297/284.3
• 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: B60N 2/0228 Hand-activated mechanical switches B60N2/0229 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: B60N 2/0244 with logic circuits
• CPC Class Codes: B60N 2/0248 with memory of positions
• CPC Class Codes: B60N 2/0252 with relations between different adjustments, e.g. height of headrest following longitudinal position of seat
• CPC Class Codes: B60N 2/026 varying hardness or support of upholstery, e.g. for tuning seat comfort when driving curved roads
• CPC Class Codes: B60N 2/0268 using sensors or detectors for adapting the seat or seat part, e.g. to the position of an occupant
• CPC Class Codes: B60N 2/0276 reaction to emergency situations, e.g. crash
• CPC Class Codes: B60N 2/06 slidable B60N2/12 , B60N2/2209 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: B60N 2/16 height-adjustable
• CPC Class Codes: B60N 2/20 the back-rest being tiltable, e.g. to permit easy access B60N2/04, B60N2/22 , B60N2/3002 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: B60N 2/22 the back-rest being adjustable B60N2/2878 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: B60N 2/501 actively controlled suspension, e.g. electronic control
• CPC Class Codes: B60N 2/505 Adjustable suspension including height adjustment
• CPC Class Codes: B60N 2/52 using fluid means
• CPC Class Codes: B60N 2/525 using gas
• CPC Class Codes: B60N 2/66 Lumbar supports
• CPC Class Codes: B60N 2/665 using inflatable bladders
• CPC Class Codes: B60N 2/809 vertically slidable
• CPC Class Codes: B60N 2/838 Tiltable
• CPC Class Codes: B60N 2/914 : Hydro-pneumatic adjustments of the shape
• CPC Class Codes: B60N 2/976 : massaging systems
• CPC Class Codes: B60N 2/986 : Side-rests B60N2/2872, B60N2/885 take precedence

Abstract

Equipment and processes generate a seating solution by obtaining occupant data, calculating body dimensions from the occupant data, and calculating a best-fit body arrangement for an occupant. Occupant data may be obtained in various ways using available computational devices and software or by manually measuring the relevant dimensions on the occupant. A user interface for inputting occupant metrics and/or occupant measurements may be provided in a mobile terminal included in the vehicle or separate from the vehicle, thus giving users increased flexibility while maximizing simplicity and usability for the user or other personnel obtaining the data. Once an occupant'"'"'s best-fit body arrangement is determined, it may be altered by changing the predetermined criteria to achieve optimum comfort, safety, and therapeutic benefit as well as used for providing improved comfort on a continuous basis and/or in response to detected or predicted vehicle, road, or atmospheric conditions.

Claims

1. An occupant support system comprising a configuration control system, the configuration control system comprising:

an interface configured to obtain occupant data associated with an occupant; and

a computer configured to provide means for receiving the occupant data, calculating a set of body ratios using the occupant data, calculating external body dimensions using the body ratios and occupant data, calculating internal body dimensions using an estimate of a thickness of the occupant'"'"'s flesh and external body dimensions, and calculating a best-fit body arrangement of the occupant using the internal body dimensions and predetermined criteria so that the occupant'"'"'s comfort and/or safety is increased when the occupant'"'"'s body is in the best-fit body arrangement.

2. The occupant support system of claim 1, further comprising a vehicle seat configured to mount to a vehicle frame included in a vehicle, and wherein the interface is further configured to obtain vehicle data associated with the vehicle seat and the computer is further configured to calculate a best-fit seating solution using the internal body dimensions, the predetermined criteria, and the vehicle data.

3. The occupant support system of claim 2, wherein the computer is further configured to generate a best-fit arrangement of the vehicle seat using the best-fit seating solution and to communicate instructions for moving the vehicle seat to the best-fit arrangement.

4. The occupant support system of claim 1, wherein the interface obtains occupant data as a result of inputting manually occupant data obtained from the occupant by asking the occupant a set of questions and measuring occupant'"'"'s body parts.

5. The occupant support system of claim 1, wherein the configuration control system further includes a sensor configured to generate occupant data in response to scanning the occupant and the sensor is coupled to the computer to communicate the occupant data to the computer.

6. The occupant support system of claim 1, wherein the computer is spaced apart from the interface and is coupled to the interface to communicate with the interface by a communication unit included in the configuration control system.

7. The occupant support system of claim 1, further comprising a vehicle seat including a seat bottom configured to mount on a vehicle frame included in a vehicle for movement relative to the vehicle frame, a seat back coupled to the seat bottom for pivoting movement about a seat-back pivot axis relative to the seat back, and a seat controller coupled to the seat bottom and to the configuration control system to receive instructions for moving the seat bottom and seat back to cause the seat back and seat bottom to be arranged so that the occupant is in the best-fit body arrangement.

8. The occupant support system of claim 1, further comprising a pneumatic system including a pneumatic bladder coupled to the vehicle seat, a pressurized air source coupled to the pneumatic bladder to provide pressurized air to the bladder and coupled to the computer to receive commands from the computer, and a pressure sensor coupled to the pneumatic bladder to sense air pressure in the bladder and communicate the sensed pressure to the computer to cause the computer to command the pressurized air source to maintain the air pressure in the pneumatic bladder in an acceptable pressure range.

9. The occupant support system of claim 1, further comprising a prediction system including a UPS unit configured to determine position data for a vehicle relative to earth, a mapping unit coupled to the UPS unit to receive the position data for the vehicle and determine a predicted future position of the vehicle relative to earth as the vehicle moves along a path and coupled to the computer to send corresponding predicted future-position data of the vehicle to the computer,

wherein the computer is further configured to calculate a revised best-fit body arrangement using the predicted future-position data and the occupant data so that the occupant'"'"'s comfort and/or safety is increased when the vehicle is at the predicted future position.

10. An occupant support system comprising

a vehicle seat including a seat bottom configured to be mounted to a vehicle frame included in a vehicle for movement relative to the vehicle frame, a seat back coupled to the seat bottom to pivot about a seat-back pivot axis relative to the seat bottom, and a seat-movement system coupled to the seat back and seat bottom to control movement of the seat back and seat bottom and

a configuration control system including an interface configured to obtain occupant data associated with the occupant and vehicle data associated with the vehicle seat and a computer configured to provide means for receiving occupant and vehicle data, calculating a set of body ratios using the occupant data, calculating external body dimensions using the body ratios and occupant data, calculating internal body dimensions using an estimate of a thickness of the occupant'"'"'s flesh and external body dimensions, calculating a best-fit body arrangement of the occupant using the internal body dimensions and predetermined criteria, calculating a best-fit seating solution using best-fit body arrangement, the vehicle data, and the predetermined criteria, and communicating the best-fit seating solution to the seat-movement system to cause the seat bottom and seat back to move to cause a best-fit arrangement of the vehicle seat to be established so that the occupant'"'"'s comfort and/or safety is increased when the vehicle seat is in the best-fit arrangement.

11. An occupant support system comprising

a vehicle seat including a seat bottom configured to mount to a vehicle frame included in a vehicle for movement relative to the vehicle frame, a seat back coupled to the seat bottom to pivot about a seat-back pivot axis relative to the seat bottom, and a seat-movement system coupled to the seat back and seat bottom to control movement of the seat back and seat bottom and

a pneumatic system including a pneumatic bladder coupled to the vehicle seat and configured to support an occupant resting on the vehicle seat, a pressurized air source coupled to the pneumatic bladder to provide pressurized air to the bladder and coupled to the seat-movement system to receive commands from the seat-movement system, and a pressure sensor coupled to the pneumatic bladder and configured to sense air pressure in the bladder and coupled to the seat-movement system to communicate the sensed pressure to the seat-movement system,

wherein the seat-movement system is configured to command the pressurized air source to maintain the air pressure in the pneumatic bladder in an acceptable pressure range.

12. The occupant support system of claim 11, further comprising

a configuration control system including an interface configured to obtain occupant data associated with the occupant and vehicle data associated with the vehicle seat and a computer configured to provide means for receiving occupant and vehicle data, calculating a set of body ratios using the occupant data, calculating external body dimensions using the body ratios and occupant data, calculating internal body dimensions using an estimate of a thickness of the occupant'"'"'s flesh and external body dimensions, calculating a best-fit body arrangement of the occupant using the internal body dimensions and predetermined criteria, calculating a best-fit seating solution using best-fit body arrangement, the vehicle data, and the predetermined criteria, communicating the best-fit seating solution to the seat-movement system, the best-fit seating solution causing the seat bottom and seat back to move positions that cause a best-fit arrangement of the vehicle seat to be established, and causing the seat-movement system to activate the pneumatic system so that an optimum-fit arrangement of the vehicle seat and pneumatic system is achieved in which the vehicle seat is at the best-fit arrangement and the pneumatic bladder is in the acceptable pressure range.

13. The occupant support system of claim 12, further comprising a prediction system including a GPS unit configured to determine a position of a vehicle relative to earth, a mapping unit coupled to the GPS unit to receive the position of the vehicle and determine a predicted future position of the vehicle relative to earth as the vehicle moves along a path and coupled to the computer to send corresponding predicted future-position data to the computer,

wherein the computer is further configured to calculate a revised best-fit seating solution using the predicted future-position data, the best-fit seating solution, and the vehicle data to communicate the revised best-fit seating solution to the seat-movement system, the revised best-fit seating solution causing the seat bottom and seat back to move to a revised best-fit arrangement, and cause the seat-movement system to activate the pneumatic system so that the revised optimum-fit arrangement of the vehicle seat and pneumatic system is achieved so that the occupant'"'"'s comfort and/or safety is increased when the vehicle is at the predicted future position.

14. An occupant support system comprising

a vehicle seat including a seat bottom configured to be mounted to a vehicle frame included in a vehicle for movement relative to the vehicle frame, a seat back coupled to the seat bottom to pivot about a seat-back pivot axis relative to the seat bottom, and a seat-movement system coupled to the seat back and seat bottom to control movement of the seat back and seat bottom and

a prediction system including a GPS unit configured to determine an actual position of a vehicle relative to earth, a mapping unit coupled to the GPS unit to receive the position of the vehicle and determine a predicted future position of the vehicle relative to earth as the vehicle moves along a path, the mapping unit being coupled to the seat-movement system to send corresponding predicted future-position data to the seat-movement system, the seat-movement system calculating a predicted arrangement of the vehicle seat using the predicted future-position data and moving the seat bottom and seat back to cause the predicted arrangement of the vehicle seat to be achieved so that the occupant is supported by the vehicle seat as the vehicle moves through the predicted future position.

15. The occupant support system of claim 14, further comprising a configuration control system including an interface configured to obtain occupant data associated with the occupant and vehicle data associated with the vehicle seat and a computer configured to provide means for receiving occupant and vehicle data, calculating a set of body ratios using the occupant data, calculating external body dimensions using the body ratios and occupant data, calculating internal body dimensions using an estimate of a thickness of the occupant'"'"'s flesh and external body dimensions, calculating a best-fit body arrangement of the occupant using the internal body dimensions and predetermined criteria, calculating a predicted best-fit seating solution using the best-fit body arrangement, the vehicle data, the predetermined criteria, and the predicted future-position data, and communicating the predicted best-fit seating solution to the seat-movement system to cause the seat bottom and seat back to move to cause a predicted best-fit arrangement of the vehicle seat to be established so that the occupant is supported by the vehicle seat as the vehicle moves through the predicted future position.

16. The occupant support system of claim 14, wherein the prediction system further includes a receiver configured to receive one of weather data and traffic data, the receiver is coupled to the seat-movement system to communicate one of weather data and traffic data to the seat-movement system, the seat-movement system calculating an enhanced predicted arrangement of the vehicle seat using the predicted future position of the vehicle and one of weather data and traffic data, the seat-movement system moving the seat bottom and seat back to cause the enhanced predicted arrangement of the vehicle seat to be achieved so that the occupant is supported by the vehicle seat as the vehicle moves through the predicted future position.

17. A method of generating and using a best-fit body arrangement for an occupant'"'"'s body, the method comprising:

obtaining occupant data associated with the occupant via an interface; and

calculating the best-fit body arrangement of the occupant using internal body dimensions and predetermined criteria,

wherein the occupant'"'"'s comfort and/or safety is increased when the occupant'"'"'s body is in the best-fit body arrangement.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising obtaining vehicle data associated with a vehicle seat to be used by the occupant and calculating a best-fit seating solution using the internal body dimensions, the predetermined criteria, and vehicle data.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising generating a best-fit arrangement of the vehicle seat using the best-fit seating solution and communicating instructions for moving the vehicle seat to the best-fit arrangement.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the instructions for moving the vehicle seat to the best-fit arrangement include instructions for moving a seat bottom and seat back to cause the seat back and seat bottom to be arranged so that the occupant is in the best-fit body arrangement.

21. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

generating commands for a pneumatic system included in the vehicle seat, the pneumatic system including a pneumatic bladder coupled to the vehicle seat and a pressurized air source coupled to the pneumatic bladder to provide pressurized air to the bladder;

sensing pressure in the bladder using a sensor coupled to the pneumatic bladder; and

maintaining the air pressure in the pneumatic bladder within an acceptable range based on the sensed pressure.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising activating the pneumatic system so that an optimum-fit arrangement of the vehicle seat and pneumatic system is achieved in which the vehicle seat is at the best-fit arrangement and the pneumatic bladder is in the acceptable pressure range.

23. The method of claim 17, wherein the occupant data is obtained as a result of receiving manually input occupant data obtained from the occupant by asking the occupant a set of questions and measuring occupant'"'"'s body parts.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising generating occupant data using a sensor that scans the occupant.

25. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

determining position data for a vehicle relative to earth;

determining a predicted future position of the vehicle relative to earth as the vehicle moves along a path and generating corresponding predicted future-position data of the vehicle; and

calculating a revised best-fit body arrangement using the predicted future-position data and the occupant data so that the occupant'"'"'s comfort and/or safety is increased when the vehicle is at the predicted future position.

26. The method of claim 17, wherein the calculation of the best-fit arrangement includes:

calculating a set of body ratios using the occupant data;

calculating external body dimensions using the body ratios and occupant data; and

calculating the internal body dimensions using an estimate of a thickness of the occupant'"'"'s flesh and external body dimensions.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the best-fit seating solution is used to generate instructions to cause a seat bottom and seat back of vehicle seat to move to cause a best-fit arrangement of the vehicle seat so that the occupant'"'"'s comfort and/or safety is increased when the vehicle seat is in the best-fit arrangement.

28. The method of claim 26, further comprising calculating a revised best-fit seating solution using predicted future-position data, the best-fit seating solution, and the vehicle data;

and

generating instructions for moving the seat bottom and seat back to move to the revised best-fit arrangement and activate a pneumatic system so that the revised optimum-fit arrangement of the vehicle seat and pneumatic system is achieved so that the occupant'"'"'s comfort and/or safety is increased when the vehicle is at the predicted future position.

29. The method of claim 26, further comprising calculating a revised best-fit seating solution using predicted future-position data, the best-fit seating solution, and the vehicle data;

and

generating instructions for moving the seat bottom and seat back to move to the revised best-fit arrangement and activate a pneumatic system so that the revised optimum-fit arrangement of the vehicle seat and pneumatic system is achieved so that the occupant'"'"'s comfort and/or safety is increased as the vehicle travels through the predicted future position.

30. The method of claim 26, further comprising calculating a best-fit seating solution using the best-fit body arrangement, vehicle data, and the predetermined criteria.

311. The method of claim 17, wherein the internal body dimensions are determined using bone dimensions of the occupant and the bone dimensions are determined based on the occupant data.

32. The method of claim 17, wherein the occupant data is generated-based on image data included in an image taken using the interface.

33. The method of claim 32, further comprising outputting display of a caliper on the interface to enable measurement of body dimensions of the occupant using the image.