Security arrangement intended for opening and/or closing of doors in particular for an automotive vehicle

The invention concerns a security arrangement intended for the opening and/or closing of at least one door of an automotive vehicle, characterized in that it includes: at least one control keyboard (2) integrated into the coach-work of the vehicle and intended for the introduction of an opening and/or closing code, said keyboard being provided with sensing elements (6) responsive to the touch and furnishing a code corresponding to the actuated keys, a circuit (30, 32, 34, 44) adapted to generate a control signal in response to said code furnished by the control keyboard; and actuating means (36, 38) controlled by said control signal and assuring the latching and/or unlatching of said door.

The present invention concerns a security arrangement intended for door 
opening and closing for an automotive vehicle or the like and more 
specifically such an arrangement including an electronic lock provided 
with a control keyboard intended for the introduction of a digital or 
alphanumeric opening code. 
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
Among the best known security arrangements for automotive vehicle door 
opening and/or closing, there may be mentioned known lock arrangements 
including a latching and unlatching mechanism manipulated by a key 
identical or not to the anti-theft key for the steering and the starter 
contact and radio-frequency or infrared arrangements which enable the 
remote control of the latching and/or unlatching of doors or the like with 
the help of a transmitter. 
Known lock arrangements with a key exhibit numerous drawbacks. 
Effectively, such known arrangements necessitate providing an opening for 
the introduction of the key for each door. Such an opening, although 
generally including a blocking arrangement, does not assure complete 
water-tightness of the lock mechanism. Such opening is often not only the 
cause of jamming, in particular by frost in very cold periods, but also 
offers an easy route to burglars and vandals for forcing and/or damaging 
the lock. Moreover, as with all locks, it is necessary to have available a 
duplicate of the key in order to be able to use the vehicle in case of 
loss of such latter. 
Radio frequency or infrared arrangements are, in general, used in parallel 
with the known key locking arrangements for which reason they do not 
enable to clear up all the drawbacks mentioned hereinabove. 
The present invention thus has as principal purpose to overcome the 
drawbacks of the prior art mentioned hereinabove in providing a security 
arrangement intended for the opening and/or closing of doors, in 
particular for an automotive vehicle or the like, protected against theft 
and vandalism and which furthermore requires no separable control element 
such as a key or a transmitter. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
To this effect, the invention has as object a security arrangement intended 
for the opening and/or closing of at least one door of an automotive 
vehicle, characterized in that it includes: 
at least one control keyboard integrated into the coachwork of the vehicle 
and intended for the introduction of an opening and/or closing code, said 
keyboard being provided with sensing elements responsive to the touch and 
furnishing a code corresponding to the actuated keys, 
a circuit adapted to generate a control signal in response to said code 
furnished by the control keyboard; and 
actuating means controlled by said control signal and assuring the latching 
and/or unlatching of said door. 
Thanks to such characteristics, the security arrangement does not exhibit 
any element attached to the exterior of the vehicle. Furthermore, it is 
watertight and consequently particularly reliable whatever be the climatic 
conditions under which it is employed or the type of attack to which it 
may be subjected. 
According to an advantageous characteristic of the invention, the keyboard 
is arranged under the vehicle roof. 
Thus, the keyboard is located at a height which suits the greatest number 
of users so that such latter can comfortably manipulate it without having 
to lean or to lower themselves into an uncomfortable position. 
According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the sensing elements 
of the control keyboard include piezoelectric elements. 
The use of such piezo-electric sensors in the security arrangement of the 
invention enables such latter to be liberated from the use of all movable 
parts appearing at the exterior of the vehicle and thus to improve the 
appearance of the vehicle while guaranteeing great security of operation 
of the arrangement and great efficiency against attempts of theft and/or 
vandalism. 
Other characteristics and advantages of the invention will appear more 
clearly upon reading the following description of a specific embodiment of 
the security arrangement, such description being established as purely 
illustrative in connection with the attached drawings.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
In referring initially to FIG. 1, there is seen an example of disposition 
of a keyboard 2 forming part of the security arrangement of the invention 
and which is in particular intended to control the opening/closing of the 
front left door of an automotive vehicle 1 shown schematically and 
partially. 
Such a disposition is not obligatory and, as is well understood, the 
keyboard can be placed in any other appropriate place, for example on the 
door itself. There could also be provided as many keyboards as the vehicle 
has doors, including a keyboard for the baggage compartment, this without 
preventing the provision of a centralized locking and unlocking of all the 
doors and/or of the trunk from a single keyboard or from any keyboard, for 
example that which is located close to the driver's door. 
According to a characteristic of the invention, the keyboard or keyboards 
are integrated under the coachwork of the vehicle, for example under the 
roof of the vehicle and are of the "grazing touch" type, so that the 
coachwork remains having a generally smooth aspect. 
Having no functional part attached onto the exterior of the vehicle, the 
representation of the control keyboard or keyboards with their keys is 
identified on the external surface of the coachwork by any appropriate 
means, such as a picture type decoration 4, which will be provided 
opposite the place where the keyboard will be integrated. The means of 
showing the keyboard as well as the keys themselves are numerous and 
varied. Nevertheless, it is preferred to use an identification means such 
as texturing of the surface which enables employment of the keyboard in 
the absence of exterior lighting, in particular at night. 
The detail of the control keyboard 2 as well as its assembly in vehicle 1 
are shown on FIGS. 2 and 3. The keyboard itself can be of the type 
described in the European patent number 0 210 386 of the Dynalab Company 
entitled "Folientastatur mit Piezoelektrischen Tasten". 
Such keyboard includes a plurality of piezo-electric tablets 6, namely one 
tablet per key 8 of the keyboard 2 arranged in housings 10 of an 
intermediate sheet 12 formed of a rigid material and serving as spacer and 
two films 14 and 16 bearing conductive tracks 18, 20 enabling for one of 
them (film 14) to connect a metallized face of piezo-electric tablets 6 to 
conductor 18 and for the other (film 16), each of the other metallized 
faces of the piezo-electric tablets to conductors 20. The different 
elements of the keyboard are assembled as a sandwich and mounted on the 
interior surface 22 of a coachwork element 24 of vehicle 1 and opposite 
the artwork 4 (or any other identifying element) of keyboard 2. It will be 
noted that such keyboard elements are mounted in a manner to be maintained 
in close contact with surface 22. 
The coachwork element 24 is sufficiently thin so that it may be deformed at 
the place of a given key of the keyboard responsive to the pressure of a 
finger. Care in particular will be taken so that the rigidity of the 
element 24 is such that it permits local deformation at the place onto 
which pressure is exerted in order to bring about actuation of the single 
piezo-electric tablet corresponding to the key which is pressed. 
Such actuation is manifested by the appearance of a voltage between the 
common conductor 18 and that of the conductors 20 which correspond to the 
actuated tablet. In order to obtain maximum efficiency, the keyboard will 
preferably be mounted between said surface 22 and a rigid and undeformable 
element 26 forming part of the internal infrastructure of the coachwork in 
which has been provided a cavity 28 of appropriate dimensions. Keyboard 2, 
for example, is directly secured to surface 22 by means of a layer of glue 
on the one hand and at the bottom of cavity 28, by means of two strips of 
glue arranged in parallel and facing the piezo-electric tablets. The glue 
used, as is well understood, will be of a type exhibiting great hardness 
once dry. 
The keyboards with piezo-electric elements lend themselves particularly 
well to the application envisaged by the present invention. Nevertheless, 
there can be envisaged other types of known keyboards exhibiting the 
particularity of including no moving part and capable of easily being 
integrated into an external element of the vehicle. 
By way of example, a keyboard could be used of the type called "capacitive 
keys" and consisting of two intersecting networks of conductors maintained 
at a slight distance from one another by a dielectric material. A contact 
of the finger at a point of intersection of the double network has as 
effect to locally modify the capacity which modification can be detected 
by an appropriate electronic circuit. Such a keyboard can be formed in the 
windows of the vehicle or again in an element of the coachwork so long as 
the latter is of an insulating material. 
Another example of keyboard can consist in the use of a keyboard called 
"resistor keys" of the type of that described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,451,714 
in the name of F. N. Eventoff et al. consisting of two intersecting 
networks of conductors maintained at a slight distance from one another by 
a semi-conductor material sensitive to pressure. A contact of the finger 
at a point of intersection of the double network has as effect to modify 
locally the resistance of the conductors, which modification can be 
detected by an appropriate electronic circuit. 
An example of the functional schematic of the security arrangement of the 
invention is shown on FIG. 4. 
The output conductors of keyboard 2 are coupled to a decoding circuit 30. 
The output code of circuit 30 is applied to a comparator 32 which also 
receives one or several codes provided by a memory register 34. When the 
code introduced and the code or codes of the register 34 are identical, a 
control signal is transmitted to one or several actuators 36, 38 via the 
respective switches 40 and 42. In the application as envisaged, actuator 
36 is for example an electromagnet which assures latching and/or 
unlatching of the doors. To such end, there can be provided a code for the 
control of the latching, for example the simultaneous actuation of any 
three keys and another code for the unlatching, for example a combination 
of predetermined keys. 
According to a particularly useful variant in order to counter every 
attempt of theft by break-in, the unlatching code introduced by keyboard 2 
and corresponding to that which is memorized is also used for inhibiting 
the master switch or ignition contact of the vehicle. Thus, in FIG. 3, 
switch 42 is placed in series with the contact switch of the starter 38. 
Memory 34, containing the unlatching code must, to be sure, be able to be 
programmed either once and for all by the manufacturer or by the user in 
the light of his needs. In such latter case, it is necessary to provide a 
programmer 44 in order to introduce the code into memory 34. Such 
programmer can be a keyboard arranged within the vehicle. 
It is evident that the embodiments described can undergo variants or 
modifications without departing from the framework of the invention. 
The use of an arrangement such as that which has just been described 
exhibits many advantages over known systems of locks. In the first place, 
no additional element such as a key or a transmitter is required in order 
to control opening and/or closing, in particular of the doors of the 
automotive vehicle. Moreover, such an arrangement constitutes an effective 
protection against theft and break-ins since knowledge of the opening code 
is indispensable. It will also be noted that such an arrangement using a 
keyboard offers a greater number of different possible combinations than 
the key or transmitter systems.