Patent ID: 8738233

Claim:
An apparatus for determining seat occupancy, comprising: a seat for a vehicle, including a seating portion on which an occupant is seated, and a seat back arranged at a rear portion of the seating portion; right and left load detecting portions arranged between a vehicle floor and either one of a front portion and the rear portion of the seating portion, the right load detecting portion detecting a load applied to a right side of the seating portion, the left load detecting portion detecting a load applied to a left side of the seating portion; and a seat occupancy determining portion calculating a seating load of the seat on the basis of the loads detected by the right and left load detecting portions and determining the seat occupancy of the seat by comparing the seating load with a predetermined threshold value, the seat including right and left upper rails and right and left frames, the right and left upper rails being arranged on the vehicle floor and keeping a predetermined distance between each other, the right and left upper rails extending along a front-rear direction of the seat, the right and left frames being positioned at upper sides of the right and left upper rails, respectively, and connected thereto via a lift mechanism, the right and left frames configuring a portion of the seating portion, wherein one of the right and left frames receives a driving force via the lift mechanism to move the seating portion vertically relative to the vehicle floor, and the other of the right and left frames is supported by one of the right and left frames via the lift mechanism, and wherein the seat occupancy determining portion varies the predetermined threshold value depending on a difference value between the load applied to the right side of the seating portion and the load applied to the left side of the seating portion.