Patent ID: 9629399
Date: 2017-04-25
CPC Classifications: A41D,A61B,G05B,G08B

Claim:
1. A hip protector system configured to be worn around a waist of a user at a waist plane of the user, the hip protector system comprising: a pouch configured to be worn around a waist of a user, wherein the pouch includes an inflatable airbag; a plurality of proximity sensors configured to measure a distance from the user's pelvis to a point on the ground surface; a gyro configured to provide spatial orientation of the waist plane of the user; an accelerometer configured to determine the vertical acceleration of the waist plane of the user; a micro controller unit operatively connected to said proximity sensors, said gyro, and said accelerometer; wherein the micro controller unit is configured to: receive a vertical acceleration direction from the accelerometer; receive proximity measurement distance signals respectively, from the proximity sensors; receive or compute spatial orientation relative to the vertical direction based on signals provided by the gyro; calculate heights respectively based on said proximity measurement distance signals and said spatial orientation signals; transfer said calculated heights to a height comparator for comparing respective calculated height values from the proximity sensors; filter out shortest height measurements caused by signal reflections from objects that temporarily block the line of sight between at least one of the proximity sensors and the ground surface to determine a true height from the waist plane of the user to the ground surface; and wherein the airbag is inflated responsive to the true height from the waist plane of the user to the ground surface to protect the user.