Communications: electrical – Land vehicle alarms or indicators – Of burglary or unauthorized use
Reexamination Certificate
2000-11-07
2003-04-01
Pope, Daryl (Department: 2632)
Communications: electrical
Land vehicle alarms or indicators
Of burglary or unauthorized use
C340S505000, C340S005210, C340S005200, C340S005610, C340S010100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06542071
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an opening-closing member control apparatus for a vehicle, which comprises one or both of a user recognition system for recognizing if an authentic user is present near the vehicle, in accordance with the reception result of an authentication signal automatically sent from a transmitter provided to a portable unit, and a keyless entry system in which an onboard unit of a vehicle controls to lock or unlock a door lock mechanism in accordance with the reception result of an unlock signal automatically sent from a transmitter provided to a portable unit.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Conventionally, a so-called keyless entry system has prevailed in automobiles. In this system, when the driver or the like operates a predetermined switch on a portable terminal (to be referred to as a portable unit hereinafter), a control unit (to be referred to as an onboard unit hereinafter) equipped in the automobile locks/unlocks doors in response to a predetermined radio wave sent in response to the driver's operation without requiring the driver to lock/unlock by inserting a predetermined key into a key cylinder.
As an application of such keyless entry system, Japanese Laid-Open Patent No. 8-199882 proposes a system which unlocks doors in response to switch operation at the portable unit, and automatically opens a power window when the switch operation continues for a predetermined period of time.
Also, Japanese Laid-Open Patent No. 8-270285 proposes a system which comprises a portable unit which automatically sends an unlock signal to a vehicle, and onboard control means for unlocking vehicle doors upon receiving the unlock signal by a reception antenna, and which divides the reception range of the reception antenna, unlocks the vehicle doors when the unlock signal is received from the portable unit in a vehicle side area, and unlocks a trunk lid when the unlock signal is received from the portable unit in an area behind the vehicle.
Furthermore, Japanese Laid-Open Patent No. 8-312213 proposes a system which comprises a portable unit for automatically sending an unlock signal to a vehicle, onboard control means for unlocking doors upon receiving the unlock signal, and antennas respectively provided to, e.g., driver and passenger sides to be separated from each other, and which unlocks the vehicle doors when the unlock signal is received by the onboard antenna on the front side of the vehicle and an identification code matches, and unlocks a trunk lid when the unlock signal is received by the onboard antenna on the rear side of the vehicle and an identification code matches.
According to the conventional keyless entry systems, since a passenger can put baggage into a passenger room from a window before he or she gets into the passenger room, convenience when he or she is carrying baggage with both his or her hands can be improved. However, in order to open the window in the keyless entry system, since the passenger must continuously operate an operation switch of the portable unit, he or she may feel inconvenient when he or she is holding heavy baggage with both his or her hands.
In order to improve convenience by simplifying passenger's operations at the portable unit, in a so-called smart keyless entry system in which the portable unit has only an operation switch for turning on/off transmission of a predetermined radio signal, and the doors are locked/unlocked in accordance with the received electric field strength level of the radio signal by the onboard unit when the onboard unit receives the predetermined radio signal, as described in Japanese Laid-Open Patent No. 8-270285, a power window automatic opening function may be added to the automatic unlock function. However, when these two functions are simply combined, a window is inadvertently opened irrespective of the passenger's will, thus posing problems in terms of security, rain, and the like.
According to Japanese Laid-Open Patent No. 8-270285, since an area where the unlock signal is detected by the reception antenna having directivity must be determined, an expensive reception antenna (onboard antenna) is required.
Also, according to Japanese Laid-Open Patent No. 8-312213, two onboard antennas are required, and the cost of the reception device increases. In addition, since these antennas must be connected to the onboard unit, wiring must laid in in the front and rear portions of the vehicle, and the control itself is complicated.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been made in consideration of the above problems, and has as its object to provide an opening-closing member control apparatus for a vehicle, which has an opening function of an opening-closing member with high security and convenience.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an opening-closing member control apparatus for a vehicle, which can automatically unlock an opening-closing member and can assure high convenience using neither an expensive onboard antenna nor a plurality of onboard antennas.
In order to achieve the above object, an opening-closing member control apparatus for a vehicle according to the first aspect of the present invention is an opening-closing member control apparatus for a vehicle, which comprises a user recognition system which recognizes if an authentic user is present near the vehicle, in accordance with a reception result of an authentication signal automatically sent from a transmitter provided to a portable unit, and comprises operation detection means for detecting user's predetermined operation for the vehicle, and opening operation means for opening a predetermined opening-closing member of the vehicle when the predetermined operation is detected while the presence of the authentic user is recognized near the vehicle upon receiving the authentication signal.
According to the first aspect, in the opening-closing member control apparatus for a vehicle, which comprises the user recognition system which recognizes if an authentic user is present near the vehicle, in accordance with the reception result of the authentication signal automatically output from the transmitter provided to the portable unit, when predetermined operation is detected while it is recognized upon receiving the authentication signal that the authentic user is present near the vehicle, the predetermined opening-closing member of the vehicle is opened. In this way, high security can be assured since the user recognition and the operation of the authentic user are used as triggers, and convenience can be improved since the opening-closing member can be opened by simple operation. Also, the opening-closing member can be automatically unlocked using neither an expensive onboard antenna nor a plurality of onboard antennas, thus assuring high convenience.
An opening-closing member control apparatus for a vehicle according to the second aspect of the present invention is an opening-closing member control apparatus for a vehicle, which comprises a keyless entry system in which an onboard unit of the vehicle controls to lock/unlock a door lock mechanism in accordance with a reception result of an unlock signal automatically sent from a transmitter provided to a portable unit, and comprises operation detection means for detecting user's predetermined operation for the vehicle, and opening operation means for opening a predetermined opening-closing member of the vehicle when the predetermined operation is detected while the door lock mechanism is unlocked upon receiving the unlock signal.
According to the second aspect, in the opening-closing member control apparatus for a vehicle, which comprises a keyless entry system in which the onboard unit of the vehicle controls to lock or unlock the door lock mechanism in accordance with the reception result of the unlock signal automatically sent from the transmitter provided to the portable unit, when predetermined operation is detected while the door lock mechanism is unlocked upon reception of the unlock signal, the predete
Harada Tsukasa
Inada Takahiro
Kanada Norifumi
Kudou Tsuneo
Matsumura Kunihiko
Mazda Motor Corporation
Pope Daryl
LandOfFree
Opening-closing member control apparatus for 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 Opening-closing member control apparatus for vehicle, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Opening-closing member control apparatus for vehicle will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3097263