Patent ID: 8754661
Filing Date: 2014-06-17
Classification: B60N,B60R,G01R

Abstract:
1. A capacitive occupant sensing apparatus for identifying whether an occupant who is present on a seat of a vehicle is an adult or a child, comprising: a sensor unit that is installed to a seat base of the seat; and a control unit that is electrically connected to the sensor unit, wherein: the sensor unit includes a first sensing electrode and a second sensing electrode; the control unit includes: the first sensing electrode is configured such that a hip breadth of a one year old infant dummy entirely covers a left-to-right directional length of the first sensing electrode, which is measured in a left-to-right direction of the seat, from a top side of the first sensing electrode in a state where the one year old infant dummy is present on a child-restraint system installed to the seat base in a normal upright seating position of the one year old infant dummy, in which the one year old infant dummy is centered about a center location of the first sensing electrode in the left-to-right direction of the seat; the second sensing electrode includes a right section and a left section located on a right side and a left side, respectively, of the first sensing electrode in the left-to-right direction of the seat; the right section and the left section of the second sensing electrode are configured such that the one year old infant dummy does not cover any portion of the right section and the left section of the second sensing electrode in the state where the one year old infant dummy is present on the child-restraint system installed to the seat base in the normal upright seating position of the one year old infant dummy, in which the one year old infant dummy is centered about the center location of the first sensing electrode in the left-to-right direction of the seat; the right section and the left section of the second sensing electrode are also configured such that an adult dummy covers at least a portion of the right section and at least a portion of the left section of the second sensing electrode from a top side of the second sensing electrode in a state where the adult dummy is present on the seat base in a normal upright seating position of the adult dummy, in which the adult dummy is centered about the center location of the first sensing electrode in the left-to-right direction of the seat; the one year old infant dummy is a CRABI 12-Month-Old Child, and the adult dummy is a Hybrid-III Female 5th percentile; and the control circuit identifies whether the occupant on the seat is the adult or the child based on: