Patent Publication Number: US-2019184854-A1

Title: Vehicle occupancy alerting system

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     Not Applicable 
     STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT 
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     THE NAMES OF THE PARTIES TO A JOINT RESEARCH AGREEMENT 
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     INCORPORATION-BY-REFERENCE OF MATERIAL SUBMITTED ON A COMPACT DISC OR AS A TEXT FILE VIA THE OFFICE ELECTRONIC FILING SYSTEM 
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     STATEMENT REGARDING PRIOR DISCLOSURES BY THE INVENTOR OR JOINT INVENTOR 
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     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     (1) Field of the Invention 
     (2) Description of Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97 and 1.98 
     The disclosure and prior art relates to warning devices and more particularly pertains to a new warning device for alerting a driver of a passenger positioned in a seat of a car. 
     BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     An embodiment of the disclosure meets the needs presented above by generally comprising a vehicle and a plurality of seats mounted within the vehicle. The plurality of seats includes a back seat. An occupant warning system is mounted on the vehicle and is configured to warn a driver of the vehicle that a person is on the back seat when the vehicle has been turned off. 
     There has thus been outlined, rather broadly, the more important features of the disclosure in order that the detailed description thereof that follows may be better understood, and in order that the present contribution to the art may be better appreciated. There are additional features of the disclosure that will be described hereinafter and which will form the subject matter of the claims appended hereto. 
     The objects of the disclosure, along with the various features of novelty which characterize the disclosure, are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this disclosure. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING(S) 
       The disclosure will be better understood and objects other than those set forth above will become apparent when consideration is given to the following detailed description thereof. Such description makes reference to the annexed drawings wherein: 
         FIG. 1  is a perspective view of components of a vehicle occupancy alerting system according to an embodiment of the disclosure. 
         FIG. 2  is a top view of an embodiment of the disclosure. 
         FIG. 3  is a front view of an embodiment of the disclosure. 
         FIG. 4  is a top view of an embodiment of the disclosure. 
         FIG. 5  is a schematic box digraph of an embodiment of the disclosure. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     With reference now to the drawings, and in particular to  FIGS. 1 through 6  thereof, a new warning device embodying the principles and concepts of an embodiment of the disclosure and generally designated by the reference numeral  10  will be described. 
     As best illustrated in  FIGS. 1 through 6 , the vehicle occupancy alerting system  10  generally comprises a conventional vehicle  12  and a plurality of seats  14  mounted within the vehicle  12 . The plurality of seats  14  includes a back seat  16  that may include a single elongated seat or a plurality of individual seats. An occupant warning system is included and warns a driver  18  of the vehicle  12  that a person  18  is on the back seat  16  when the vehicle  12  has been turned off. 
     The occupant warning system comprises a housing  20  with a control circuit  22  mounted therein. The control circuit  22  is in communication with a processor  24  of the vehicle  12 . The processor  24  sends a powered signal or an unpowered signal to the control circuit  22  associated with a powered state of the vehicle  12 . A power source  26  is electrically coupled to the control circuit  22  and may comprise an electrical power system of the vehicle  12 . A plurality of pressure sensors  28  is electrically coupled to the control circuit  22 . Each of the pressure sensors  28  is positioned remote of the housing  20 . At least one of the pressure sensors  28  is positioned on the back seat  16 . 
     A sound emitter  30  is mounted in the housing  20  and is electrically coupled to the control circuit  22 . The sound emitter  30  emits an audible alarm when the control circuit  22  receives the unpowered signal and one of the pressure sensors  28  detects pressure greater than 5.0 lbs. A light emitter  32  is mounted on the housing  20  and is electrically coupled to the control circuit  22 . The light emitter  32  emits a visible light when the control circuit  22  receives the unpowered signal and one of the pressure sensors  28  detects pressure greater than 5.0 lbs. 
     In use, the occupant warning system alerts a driver  18  of a vehicle  12  to passengers located in the vehicle  12 . The sound emitter  30  emits an audible alarm and the light emitter  32  emits a visible light when one of the pressure sensors  28  detects pressure greater than 5.0 lbs and the vehicle is powered off. The audible alarm and light emitter warn the driver of a passenger positioned in the back seat  16  of the vehicle  12 . 
     With respect to the above description then, it is to be realized that the optimum dimensional relationships for the parts of an embodiment enabled by the disclosure, to include variations in size, materials, shape, form, function and manner of operation, assembly and use, are deemed readily apparent and obvious to one skilled in the art, and all equivalent relationships to those illustrated in the drawings and described in the specification are intended to be encompassed by an embodiment of the disclosure. 
     Therefore, the foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the disclosure. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the disclosure to the exact construction and operation shown and described, and accordingly, all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of the disclosure. In this patent document, the word “comprising” is used in its non-limiting sense to mean that items following the word are included, but items not specifically mentioned are not excluded. A reference to an element by the indefinite article “a” does not exclude the possibility that more than one of the element is present, unless the context clearly requires that there be only one of the elements.