Patent ID: 7024294
Filing Date: 2006-04-04
Classification: B60R

Abstract:
1. A method of determining a status classification of a vehicle seat occupant comprising the steps: receiving signals for a predetermined time from a plurality of sensors responsive to a physical characteristic of an occupant at diverse locations on a vehicle seat apparatus; deriving upper and lower control reference values from the received signals; deriving maximum and minimum sampled values of each of the received signals during the predetermined time and comparing the derived maximum and minimum sampled values for each of the received signals to the upper and lower control reference values; if and only if the maximum and minimum sampled values of at least one of the received signals span the upper and lower control reference values for that received signal, performing the following steps (a) through (d): determining the status classification from the received signals in a predetermined classification process, but without the use of any received signal marked as an outlier more than a predetermined number of consecutive times.