Process for the capacitive object detection in the case of vehicles
First Claim
1. A process for object detection in a vehicle seat, using first and second capacitors arranged respectively in a backrest and in a seat surface of said vehicle seat, said capacitors having respective capacitances which are influenced by presence of an object, said process comprising:
- energizing the capacitors with an alternating voltage;
determining time variation of capacitance of each capacitor individually;
from time variable values of each of the first and second capacitances, determining first and second evaluations of the object by means of a value table;
when the first and second evaluations correspond to one another with respect to object type, an occupant protection system assigned to the seat is correspondingly activated.
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Accused Products
Abstract
In a process for capacitive object detection in a vehicle seat, capacitors arranged in the backrest and in the seat surface are influenced by an object. The capacitors are acted upon by alternating voltage, and the time variation of their capacitances is determined individually. From the values of each of the two capacitances, an evaluation of the object is derived by means of a value table and, when the two evaluations correspond to one another concerning the type of an object, an occupant protection system assigned to the seat is correspondingly activated.
22 Citations
8 Claims
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1. A process for object detection in a vehicle seat, using first and second capacitors arranged respectively in a backrest and in a seat surface of said vehicle seat, said capacitors having respective capacitances which are influenced by presence of an object, said process comprising:
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energizing the capacitors with an alternating voltage;
determining time variation of capacitance of each capacitor individually;
from time variable values of each of the first and second capacitances, determining first and second evaluations of the object by means of a value table;
when the first and second evaluations correspond to one another with respect to object type, an occupant protection system assigned to the seat is correspondingly activated. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3)
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4. A process for object detection in a vehicle seat, using first and second capacitors arranged respectively in a backrest and in a seat surface of said vehicle seat, said capacitors having respective capacitances which are influenced by an object, said process comprising:
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energizing the capacitors with an alternating voltage;
determining time variation of capacitance of each capacitor individually;
from time variable values of the first and second capacitances, determining first and second evaluations of the object by means of a value table;
relating the two evaluations to one another mathematically, to determine a resulting value; and
based on the resulting value from the mathematical relationship, using a decision table to determine whether an occupant protection system assigned to the seat can be activated. - View Dependent Claims (5)
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6. A process for detecting an object in a vehicle seat using at least one capacitive detector element, said process comprising:
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detecting time variation of output signals from said at least one capacitive detector element;
evaluating occupancy of said vehicle seat depending on said time variation of said output signals;
wherein a currently set evaluation from said evaluating step is reset to a different evaluation only when said output signals crosses a preset threshold value and maintains a value which does not again cross the threshold value for a predetermined period of time. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8)
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Specification