Patent ID: 6850268

Claim:
An apparatus for detecting the passenger occupancy of a vehicle comprising: a first image pickup means aligned along a first optical axis with a first lens, a second image pickup means aligned along a second optical axis with a second lens, the first and second image pickup means provided at a specified distance apart in a plane substantially perpendicular to the first and second optical axes, the respective optical axes of each image pickup means are substantially parallel to each other; measuring means for dividing at least two images acquired by said first and second image pickup means into a plurality of small areas respectively, each of the plurality of small areas containing a plurality of pixels, and measuring a distance to an object in each of the small areas on the basis of an offset amount of an object image from one of the respective optical axes to determine a positional offset between the two images obtained in the respective small areas; reference data providing means for providing reference data for each of the small areas relating to the distance from said first and second image pickup means to a seat in accordance with a position of said seat and a reclining angle of said seat; detection means for detecting the passenger occupancy of said seat on the basis of the distance measured by said measuring means and said reference data; a shape computing section for calculating a shape of the object on the basis of the positions of said small areas in which part of the object exists; wherein an area provided by the at least two image pickup means is a seat back of a seat of the vehicle as seen from a view facing a front portion of the vehicle; and wherein said detection means determines if the part of the object exists in each of said small areas and integrates the results of such determination for all of said small areas and when the number of said small areas in which the part of the object exists is greater than a predetermined threshold value, said detection means determines that a passenger exists in the seat, and wherein it is judged that the passenger is an adult or child on the basis of the width and the height of the calculated shape.