Communications: electrical – Land vehicle alarms or indicators – Of relative distance from an obstacle
Reexamination Certificate
2000-01-24
2002-10-08
Hofsass, Jeffery (Department: 2632)
Communications: electrical
Land vehicle alarms or indicators
Of relative distance from an obstacle
C340S425500, C340S438000, C701S045000, C701S046000, C701S047000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06462649
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an air bag failure display system and an air bag failure display method that displays a result of a failure diagnosis of an air bag system of a vehicle in a mode selected among a plurality of display modes different of information content, for example from between a normal mode for display to user and an intelligent mode for display to maintenance personnel.
A conventional air bag failure display system indicates a result of a failure diagnosis of an air bag system of a vehicle in a display mode selective between a normal mode and a maintenance mode.
In the normal mode, a driver of the vehicle is simply notified of an occurrence of a failure of the air bag system. If the air bag system is free of problem, this display takes the form of a display lamp which lights for seven seconds and then is extinguished. In the case the failure diagnosis revealed a problem, the display is flashed with a prescribed period, regardless of the type and location of the failure, to prompt the driver to visit a service location.
The maintenance mode is provided to notify maintenance personnel of details of the normal or failed condition of the air bag system. This display takes the form of a display lamp flashing to provide coded information like Morse code, which informs the maintenance personnel not only that a failure has occurred, but also its location and type.
In the conventional air bag failure display system, after an ignition switch of the vehicle is set to an on state from its off state, if a door opening/closing switch is operated five times within seven seconds, the normal mode is switched to the maintenance mode.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In the conventional air bag failure display system, however, because the switching from the normal mode to the maintenance mode is done in response to operation of the door switch, there is a need not only to make connection between the air bag system and the door switch, which had previously been unrelated to the air bag system, but also to provide a new wiring harness and interface circuit between the air bag system and the door switch. This causes an increase in the number of parts and an increase in the manufacturing cost.
The present invention is made with such points in view. It therefore is an object of the present invention to provide a simple air bag failure display system that reliably selects an intended display mode. It also is an object of the present invention to provide a facilitated air bag failure display method that reliably selects an intended display mode.
An aspect of the invention devised to solve the above-noted problem is an air bag failure display system that displays a result of a failure diagnosis of an air bag system of a vehicle in a selective one of a plurality of display modes, the air bag system including an air bag controller having an apparatus employed therefor. This display system has an operation sensor which senses a prescribed operation performed to the apparatus, a deceleration sensor which senses a deceleration imparted to the vehicle, and a display mode selector which, after the prescribed operation has been sensed by the operation sensor, switches a current display mode to another display mode if the deceleration sensed by the deceleration sensor exceeds a prescribed value.
According to this aspect of the present invention, an operation sensor senses a prescribed operation performed by an operator to an apparatus employed for an air bag controller of an air bag system of a vehicle, and a deceleration sensor senses a deceleration imparted to the vehicle, and a display mode selector switches a current display mode to another display mode if the deceleration sensed by the deceleration sensor exceeds a prescribed value after the prescribed operation has been sensed by the operation sensor. This provides reliable attainment of a display mode desired by the operator without the need for an increase in the number of components, thereby reducing the manufacturing cost.
Another aspect of the invention is an air bag failure display system for a vehicle having a set of sensing elements arranged therein to sense a state of the vehicle, and an air bag system including an air bag, an air bag control system that receives signals from the set of sensing elements and controls the air bag in response to the received signals, and an air bag failure diagnosis system that performs a failure diagnosis of the air bag system. This display system comprises the set of sensing elements employed to sense variations of the state of the vehicle incurred by a combination of operator actions given to the vehicle as an operator command, a signal processor which processes the received signals to decode the operator command, and a display device which indicates a result of the failure diagnosis in a display mode selected from a plurality of display modes different of information content in dependence on the operator command decoded by the signal processor.
According to this aspect of the invention, an air bag failure display system is provided for a vehicle in which an air bag system includes an air bag control system and an air bag failure diagnosis system that performs a failure diagnosis of the air bag system. In this arrangement, (an) operator(s) gives (or give) a voluntary coded command in the form of a combination of intended actions (e.g. switching actions and braking) by the operator(s) to the vehicle. The vehicle thus has corresponding variations (e.g. current conduction and vehicle deceleration) incurred in a vehicular state, which are sensed by a set of sensing elements arranged in the vehicle for the air bag control system so that corresponding signals therefrom are received by the air bag control system. Then, the received signals are processed by a signal processor of the air bag failure display system to decode the operator command, and a display device indicates a result of the failure diagnosis in a display mode selected from a plurality of display modes different of information content in dependence on the decoded operator command.
Accordingly, the operator command is indirectly interfaced to the air bag failure display system via associated portions of the vehicle and the air bag control system, without the need to provide a direct interface therebetween.
Another aspect of the invention is an air bag failure display method for a vehicle having a set of sensing elements arranged therein to sense a state of the vehicle, and an air bag system including an air bag, an air bag control system that receives signals from the set of sensing elements and controls the air bag in response to the received signals, and an air bag failure diagnosis system that performs a failure diagnosis of the air bag system. This display method comprises employing the set of sensing elements to sense variations of the state of the vehicle incurred by a combination of operator actions given to the vehicle as an operator command, processing the received signals to decode the operator command, and indicating a result of the failure diagnosis in a display mode selected from a plurality of display modes different of information content in dependence on the operator command decoded by the processing.
According to this aspect also, there can be achieved like effects to the previous aspect of the invention.
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Hofsass Jeffery
McDermott & Will & Emery
Nissan Motor Co.
Prev'l Daniel
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