Patent ID: 11894841
Assignee: ZF AUTOMOTIVE SAFETY GERMANY GMBH
Field: Transport (Mechanical engineering)
Classification: CPC B  H  G | IPC G  H

Claim 0:
1. A device for detecting contact with a manually activated steering wheel of a vehicle, the device comprising:
the steering wheel,
a conductor arrangement (10) having a plurality of sensor surfaces or regions (16) on the steering wheel that are connected to one another in series by means of electrical conductor lines (18) that extend entirely on the steering wheel between adjacent sensor surfaces or regions (16), the electrical conductor lines (18) having a significant ohmic resistance between the sensor surfaces or regions (16), each electrical conductor line (18) forming or being connected to a resistor on the steering wheel between two adjacent sensor surfaces or regions (16) so that the conductor arrangement (10) is formed by an alternating sequence of resistors and conductor surfaces or regions (16) arranged in a row on the steering wheel,
wherein each resistor formed by or connected to a corresponding electrical conductor line (18) on the steering wheel has a resistance that is significantly higher compared to a copper wire and within a range of 10 Ω/m to 1 MΩ/m, and
a control unit configured
to apply an alternating voltage to the conductor arrangement (10),
to determine a current in the conductor arrangement (10), and
to evaluate the determined values.