SEATING SENSING DEVICE AND METHOD OF THE SAME

• US 20110140723A1
• Filed: 09/15/2010
• Published: 06/16/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/10/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Original Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Inventors: Jeong, Ji Wook
• Granted Patent: US 8,493,082 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 324/705
• 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: B60R 21/01512 Passenger detection systems
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 21/01526 using piezoelectric elements

Abstract

A seating sensing device embedded in a seat includes: a variable resistance unit generating resistance values corresponding to the circumference of the seat through a plurality of conductive threads installed in the seat; and a signal analysis unit analyzing variable quantities of the resistance values to acquire activity information on one or more of whether a user is seated or not, a seating posture, and a seating posture change.

Claims

1. A seating sensing device embedded in a seat, comprising:

a variable resistance unit generating resistance values corresponding to the circumference of the seat through a plurality of conductive threads installed in the seat; and

a signal analysis unit analyzing variable quantities of the resistance values to acquire activity information on one or more of whether a user is seated or not, a seating posture, and a seating posture change.

2. The seating sensing device of claim 1, wherein each of the conductive threads comprises:

a electroconductive fiber generating a resistance value corresponding to the length thereof; and

an elastic thread having elasticity.

3. The seating sensing device of claim. 2, wherein each of the conductive threads is implemented in such a shape that the electroconductive fiber and the elastic thread are twisted about each other.

4. The seating sensing device of claim 2, wherein the plurality of conductive threads are disposed at even intervals from each other.

5. The seating sensing device of claim 1, wherein the variable resistance unit is installed as a cushion type on a seat board, installed as a patch type so as to bP attached to or detached from the seat surface, installed as an embedded type so as to be embedded in the seat, or installed as a sheet type so as to cover the entire surface of the seat.

6. The seating sensing device of claim 1, wherein the signal analysis unit comprises:

a resistance-voltage converter converting the resistance values into voltage values, respectively; and

an activity information generator analyzing patterns change in the voltage values to acquire the activity information on one or more of whether a user is seated or not, a seating posture, and a seating posture change.

7. The seating sensing device of claim 6, wherein when a voltage value having a larger variable quantity than a seating detection reference exists, the activity information generator generates and outputs activity information reporting that the user is seated.

8. The seating sensing device of claim 6, wherein the activity information generator determines seat regions in which the voltage values are increased to be greater than before, derives the seating posture of the user, and generates and outputs activity information reporting the derived seating posture.

9. The seating sensing device of claim 6, wherein the activity information generator determines patterns of change in seat regions in which the voltage values are increased to be greater than before, confirms whether the seating posture of the user is changed or not, and generates and outputs activity information reporting that seating posture has been changed.

10. The seating sensing device of claim 6, wherein the resistance-voltage converter comprises one or more voltage division circuits having one or more of the plurality of conductive threads as variable resistors and dividing voltages depending on the resistance values of the variable resistors.

11. The seating sensing device of claim 6, wherein the signal analysis unit further comprises a signal converter performing analog-digital conversion on the respective voltage values to convert the respective voltage values into digitized voltage values and providing the digitized voltage values to the activity information generator.

12. The seating sensing device of claim 8, further comprising a display unit generating a character, an image, and a sound corresponding to the activity information and outputting the generated character, image, and sound to a monitor and a speaker which are embedded therein.

13. The seating sensing device of claim 1, further comprising a transmission unit providing the activity information to an external device.

14. A seating sensing method comprising:

generating resistance values corresponding to the circumference of a seat through a plurality of conductive threads installed in the seat;

converting the resistance values into voltage values, respectively;

performing analog-digital conversion on the voltage values to convert the voltage values into digitized voltage values, respectively; and

analyzing the digitized voltage values to acquire the activity information on one or more of whether a user is seated or not, a seating posture, and a seating posture change.