REAR OCCUPANT WARNING SYSTEM

• US 20160280067A1
• Filed: 03/24/2015
• Published: 09/29/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/24/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Inventors: CUDDIHY, Mark A., RAO, Manoharprasad K., PRAKAH-ASANTE, Kwaku O.
• Granted Patent: US 9,630,496 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 28/04 responsive to presence or absence of the driver, e.g. to weight or lack thereof
• CPC Class Codes: B60N 2/00 Seats specially adapted for vehicles; Arrangement or mounting of seats in vehicles railway seats B61D33/00; cycle seats B62J1/00; aircraft seats B64D11/06, B64D25/04, B64D25/10
• 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: B60W 2050/143 Alarm means
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/146 Display means
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2422/00 Indexing codes relating to the special location or mounting of sensors
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2540/00 Input parameters relating to occupants
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2556/45 External transmission of data to or from the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/14 Means for informing the driver, warning the driver or prompting a driver intervention
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/02 Alarms for ensuring the safety of persons
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/22 responsive to presence or absence of persons
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/24 Reminder alarms, e.g. anti-loss alarms
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks

Abstract

A vehicle occupant alert system may include an in-vehicle sensor configured to detect an object in a rear seat of a vehicle, and a controller configured to receive, from the sensor, an indication of an object in the rear seat, and to transmit, in response to the indication, presence information to a mobile device to cause the mobile device to transmit a command to a wearable device including instructions for an alert at the wearable device.

Claims

1. A vehicle occupant alert system comprising:

an in-vehicle sensor configured to detect an object in a vehicle rear seat; and

a controller configured to

receive, from the sensor, an indication of an object in the rear seat, and

transmit, in response to the indication, presence information to a mobile device to cause the device to transmit a command to a wearable device, the command including instructions for an alert at the wearable device.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to monitor, via at least one door sensor, the opening and closing of the vehicle doors.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the controller is further configured to determine whether a driver door has been opened and subsequently closed.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the controller is further configured to determine, subsequent to the driver door opening and closing, whether a rear door of the vehicle has opened.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein the controller is further configured to determine whether a rear door of the vehicle has opened within a predefined time from the driver door closing.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the controller is configured to transmit the presence information in response to the indication and in response to a rear door not opening within the predefined time from the driver door closing.

7. A vehicle occupant alert system comprising:

a mobile device having a processor configured to

receive, from a vehicle, presence data indicative of an object in a rear seat of a vehicle; and

transmit, in response to the data, a command to a wearable device including instructions for a haptic alert at the wearable device.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the wearable device is configured to come into contact with a user for realization of the haptic alert.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the presence data further indicates that a rear door of the vehicle has not been opened for a predefined amount of time since a driver door of the vehicle has been closed.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein the presence data is received over a first communication link and the command is transmitted over a second communication link distinct from the first communication link.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the second communication link is a communication link between the mobile device and the wearable device.

12. A system comprising:

a controller configured to

receive, from a door sensor, an indication of a closing of a driver door,

receive, from a seat sensor, an indication of an object in a rear seat, and

transmit, in response to the indication of the object and a rear door not opening within a predefined amount of time from the closing of the driver door, presence information to a mobile device, the presence information to cause the mobile device to transmit a command to a wearable device including instructions for an alert at the wearable device.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the controller is further configured to receive an indication of an engine key-off triggering the controller to monitor the vehicle doors.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the alert is a haptic alert at the wearable device.