Patent ID: 7925403

Claim:
A method for controlling an occupant restraint apparatus, the method comprising: detecting an obstacle in a travelling direction of a vehicle that may potentially collide with the vehicle; predicting a type of collision between the obstacle detected and the vehicle; setting conditions for expanding an airbag of the vehicle based on the collision type predicted; and controlling both of the expansion of the airbag and gas discharge from the airbag according to the conditions set by attaching one end of a flap to the airbag and based on the conditions set either: holding the other end of the flap as the airbag is expanding to restrict the expansion size of the airbag and to overlap a large vent of the flap with an opening in the airbag to increase flow of gas out therefrom, or releasing the other end of the flap as the airbag is expanding to increase the expansion size of the airbag and to overlap a small vent of the flap with the airbag opening to decrease flow of gas out therefrom.