Patent ID: 6945560

Claim:
An airbag device for a vehicle, comprising: an airbag configured to advance into a passenger compartment when being inflated, said airbag having a side moving toward an occupant when being inflated; a filling device configured to inflate said airbag with gas; a control device operatively connected to said filling device, said control device controlling said filling device via a control signal; at least one sensor element disposed on said side of said airbag moving toward the occupant when being inflated, said at least one sensor element being responsive to local pressure changes, said at least one sensor element passing sensed pressure changes as a sensor signal to said control device; said at least one sensor element being formed of sensor strips crossing over one another, said sensor strips being resistor elements and being configured to detect pressure changes; said resistor elements forming a matrix grid with rows and columns of spaced apart contact regions of said resistor elements; a respective one of said contact regions of corresponding two of said resistor elements having a respective electrical resistance dependent on one of a force loading and a pressure loading of said respective one of said contact regions; an electrically conductive element in electrical contact with one of said resistor elements at one of said contact regions, said electrically conductive element applying a voltage to said one of said resistor elements at said one of said contact regions, said electrically conductive element having a lower resistance than said one of said resistor elements; and said filling device being controlled such that a quantity of gas supplied by said filling device can be controlled in response to a sensor signal supplied by said resistor elements detecting an advancing movement of said airbag.