Patent ID: 9499116
Filing Date: 2016-11-22
CPC Classification: B60R

Claim Text:
1. An occupant protection device that operates an airbag and provides switching of a restraint load of a seat belt during a vehicle impact, and limiting a force with which the seat belt restrains an occupant according to a physique of the occupant, between a first load value and a second load value smaller than the first load value, the occupant protection device comprising: a physique identification unit that identifies the physique of the occupant; a physique determining unit that determines whether the physique of the occupant identified by the physique identification unit is equal to or larger than a predetermined physique; an acceleration acquisition unit that determines an acceleration value in a vehicle width direction during the vehicle impact; an acceleration determining unit that determines whether the acceleration value acquired by the acceleration acquisition unit is equal to or smaller than a predetermined value; and a switching unit that switches the restraint load of the seat belt between the first load value and the second load value based on the determinations obtained by the physique determining unit and the acceleration determining unit, wherein the switching unit switches the restraint load of the seat belt to the second load value after a predetermined time during the vehicle impact when the physique determining unit determines that the physique of the occupant is equal to or larger than the predetermined physique and the acceleration determining unit determines that the acceleration value in the vehicle width direction is equal to or smaller than the predetermined value, and maintains the restraint load of the seat belt at the first load value after the predetermined time when the physique determining unit determines that the physique of the occupant is equal to or larger than the predetermined physique and the acceleration determining unit determines that the value based on the acceleration value in the vehicle width direction is larger than the predetermined value.