Patent ID: 7286920
Filing Date: 2007-10-23
Classification: B60R

Abstract:
1. A collision determining device for activating an occupant protection device mounted in a vehicle, comprising: a sidewall acceleration sensor disposed in at least one of both sidewalls of the vehicle for detecting as an acceleration a collision of an obstruction with the at least one of the both sidewalls; a center acceleration sensor disposed in a central portion of a body of the vehicle for detecting as an acceleration a collision of an obstruction with the at least one of the both sidewalls; a collision determining unit for determining a collision occurrence of a given pattern requiring activating the occupant protection device; and an intrusion amount determining unit for determining an intrusion amount derived from a collision in the vehicle based on a first intrusion estimating amount derived from an acceleration detected by the sidewall acceleration sensor and a second intrusion estimating amount derived from an acceleration detected by the center acceleration sensor, wherein a correlational map is produced to have, along with a collision determining threshold line including a first collision determining threshold line and a second collision determining threshold line, two parameters of a first collision estimating amount derived from an acceleration detected by the sidewall acceleration sensor and a second collision estimating amount derived from an acceleration detected by the center acceleration sensor, wherein the collision determining unit determines the collision occurrence of the given pattern requiring activation of the occupant protection device when a tracking line that indicates a correlation between the first collision estimating amount and the second collision estimating amount crosses the collision determining threshold line, and wherein the collision determining unit includes: