Patent ID: 7198291

Claim:
A passenger protection apparatus comprising: a collision detection part for detecting a collision of a vehicle; an object detection part for detecting the existence of an object in a predetermined object detection region disposed rearwardly of an air bag installation surface in the vehicle based on a signal from a sensor; and an air bag control signal generation part for generating an air bag control signal to control the expansion of an air bag based on the detection results of said object detection part and said collision detection part; wherein said air bag control signal generation part makes, by referencing detection results of said collision detection part and said object detection part cyclically, the air bag control signal into a control signal of expansion permission only when there exists an object in said object detection region at the instant when the collision of the vehicle is detected or within a period of time from the point in time of the collision of the vehicle to when the object moves from a non-detection region to said object detection region due to the collision.