Patent Document ID: 20080143085
Application ID: 12036423
Patent Status: 0

Claim One:
1. A vehicle including an apparatus for determining an object characteristic of an object that may be located on a seat of a vehicle, comprising: a plurality of emitting means arranged on the vehicle, each of said emitting means emitting a beam along a path on which the object may be located, each path being in a different direction; an array of receiving means arranged on the vehicle, each of said receiving means receiving beams emitted from said array of emitting means that are reflected from the object when present in the seat; and a processor coupled to said emitting means and said receiving means for determining time-of-flight of each reflected and received beam between emission of the beam from said array of emitting means and reception of the beam at said array of receiving means, said processor being arranged to determine a characteristic of the object based on the determined time-of-flight of each reflected and received beam.