Communications: electrical – Land vehicle alarms or indicators – Of burglary or unauthorized use
Reexamination Certificate
1998-11-19
2001-01-23
Pope, Daryl (Department: 2736)
Communications: electrical
Land vehicle alarms or indicators
Of burglary or unauthorized use
C340S425500, C340S429000, C340S937000, C340S438000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06177864
ABSTRACT:
FIELD AND BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a device for actuating electronic equipment in a motor vehicle, having a sensor element for generating electronic signals as a function of positions of persons and/or objects in a passenger compartment of the motor vehicle, and having an evaluation unit for evaluating the electronic signals.
Such a device is known from DE-A-42 04 996 for actuating a piece of electronic equipment which is, for example, in the form of a cassette recorder. The sensor element has two infrared sensors for registering the position of a movable control device for the piece of electronic equipment. The intention is that the signals of the device will be used to disable functions of the control device if the control device is located in the region of the driver of the motor vehicle.
Such devices are in practice frequently also connected to an antitheft alarm system in order, for example, to activate a horn if someone reaches into the motor through an open window. However, with most sensor elements which are designed as infrared sensors there is the risk, in particular at high external temperatures, of false alarms of the antitheft alarm system.
Furthermore, from practice, such devices are known for actuating an airbag. Here, pressure-sensitive sensor elements are mounted in vehicle seats so that the triggering of the airbag may be avoided if the corresponding vehicle seat is unoccupied. However, these pressure-sensitive sensor elements are not capable of distinguishing whether there is a person or, for example, a child's seat or some other object on the vehicle seat.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention is based on the problem of designing a device of the type mentioned at the beginning in such a way that the persons and/or objects in the passenger compartment are reliably registered and the actuation of different electronic equipment is made possible with as little complexity as possible.
This problem is solved in accordance with the invention by virtue of the fact that the sensor element is designed as a picture-taking sensor unit, and the evaluation unit is designed to recognize pictures of the picture-taking sensor unit.
By virtue of this design, the passenger compartment of the motor vehicle is visually registered by the picture-taking sensor unit, and the persons and/or the objects in the passenger compartment are detected by the evaluation unit. In this way, the device according to the invention can recognize simply and precisely whether, for example, the control device is located in the vicinity of the driver and whether a vehicle seat is occupied by a person or an object. Thanks to the invention, it is possible, for example, to avoid the triggering of the airbag actuated with the device according to the invention if the corresponding vehicle seat is occupied only by an object or if there is an object located on the lap of a person. The evaluation unit can be used to actuate various pieces of equipment such as an airbag, antitheft alarm system or control devices in the motor vehicle, for example. Furthermore, high temperatures no longer give rise to incorrect signals of the device according to the invention. By means of the evaluation unit it is also possible to determine whether the motor vehicle contains an animal or a human so that the risk of a false alarm of the antitheft alarm system actuated with the device according to the invention can be reduced further. Since only a single sensor element and a single evaluation unit is required for various pieces of electronic equipment, the device according to the invention requires a particularly low degree of structural complexity.
Thus, by means of a picture-processing unit it is possible to distinguish both persons and objects as such and, furthermore, also to determine the precise position of the persons and/or objects.
Triggering of the airbag should, as a rule, be avoided if the person is not seated appropriately on the corresponding vehicle seat. This is the case, for example, if the person has placed his legs on the dashboard of the motor vehicle. In such a case, the triggering of the airbag actuated with the device according to the invention can be prevented simply if the actuation unit is designed to recognize the sitting position of a person on a vehicle seat. A multistage airbag can be actuated simply with the device according to the invention if the evaluation device is designed to sense sizes and/or weights of persons. Such multistage airbags—referred to frequently as intelligent airbags—inflate to different degrees as a function of the size and the weight of the person on the vehicle seat.
The device according to the invention is of particularly simple design if the evaluation unit has an electronic memory for various sitting positions and for various sizes and weights of the persons, and is designed to compare the stored values with the picture of the picture-taking sensor unit.
The device according to the invention can be mounted particularly simply on the motor vehicle and connected to the electronic equipment by means of short electric leads if the picture-taking sensor unit is provided for arrangement in the region of a dashboard of the motor vehicle.
The single picture-taking sensor unit can be used to register virtually completely the passenger compartment of the motor vehicle if the picture-taking sensor unit is provided for arrangement in a region adjoining an interior mirror.
According to another advantageous development of the invention, the picture-taking sensor unit does not cause the field of vision of the driver to be narrowed if the picture-taking sensor unit is provided for arrangement behind a translucently designed interior mirror of the motor vehicle.
The airbag frequently has an arithmetic unit which processes and evaluates signals of a crash sensor. One possibility would be to feed the signals of the evaluation unit of the device according to the invention to this arithmetic unit. However, it helps to reduce the electronic components in the motor vehicle, if, in accordance with another advantageous development of the invention, the evaluation unit has an arithmetic unit which is designed to link logically the signals of the picture-taking sensor unit and of a crash sensor.
It is advantageous to reduce further the electronic components in the motor vehicle if, in accordance with another advantageous development of the invention, the evaluation unit has an arithmetic unit which is designed to link logically the signals of the picture-taking sensor unit and of a glass breakage sensor and/or of a door sensor. By virtue of this design, it is possible for the antitheft alarm system to be actuated directly by the device according to the invention.
The picture-taking sensor unit could permanently monitor the passenger compartment of the motor vehicle. However, it helps to reduce the consumption of electrical current of the device according to the invention if the picture-taking sensor unit is designed to generate, in each case, an individual picture after a time interval which is provided. The time interval could be, for example, one to two seconds.
It helps to reduce further the consumption of electrical current by the device according to the invention if the evaluation unit can be activated as a result of a change in the signals of the picture-taking sensor unit.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4679077 (1987-07-01), Yuasa et al.
patent: 5739757 (1998-04-01), Gioutsos
patent: 5845000 (1998-12-01), Breed et al.
patent: 4023109 (1992-01-01), None
patent: 4204996 (1993-08-01), None
patent: 4339113 (1996-09-01), None
patent: 2289332 (1995-11-01), None
Farber Martin A.
Mannesmann VDO AG
Pope Daryl
LandOfFree
Device for actuating electronic equipment in a motor vehicle does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Device for actuating electronic equipment in a motor vehicle, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Device for actuating electronic equipment in a motor vehicle will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2496352