Patent ID: 8266963
Filing Date: 2012-09-18
Classification: F42C,G01P,H02N

Abstract:
1. A device associated with an object, the device comprising: a mass-spring unit having a spring element and a mass disposed at one end of the spring element, the mass being free to vibrate upon an acceleration of an object; two or more piezoelectric stacks disposed between another end of the spring element and a portion of the object such that the mass-spring unit transmits a force resulting from the acceleration to the two or more piezoelectric stacks and converts the vibration of the mass-spring unit to an electrical energy; a member disposed between the mass-spring unit and two or more piezoelectric stacks to connect the three or more piezoelectric stacks and to distribute the force on the two or more piezoelectric stacks; and a processor for calculating at least one of the force and acceleration based on differing outputs of each of the two or more piezoelectric stacks due to the force distribution on the two or more piezoelectric stacks; wherein a portion of the two or more piezoelectric stacks is configured for converting the vibration of the mass-spring unit to electrical energy and another portion of the two or more piezoelectric stacks is configured to determining the at least one of the force and acceleration.