Communications: electrical – Condition responsive indicating system – Specific condition
Reexamination Certificate
1999-09-30
2001-02-27
Wu, Daniel J. (Department: 2736)
Communications: electrical
Condition responsive indicating system
Specific condition
C340S667000, C280S728100, C180S271000, C180S273000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06195008
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for monitoring a seated person, in particular a person seated in a vehicle equipped with an air-bag system.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In conventional safety systems in, for example, cars, air-bags are integrated as a part of the system. Air-bags are designed as a supplement to other safety devices, such as belts and deformation zones provided in the car.
An air-bag is a device which is rapidly inflated with gas in the event that a vehicle is involved in a collision, in order to reduce the damages on the persons/passengers travelling inside the vehicle.
However, in some situations, the use of an air-bag has turned out not to provide an increased safety for the passenger. Thus, if an un-belted child is seated on the passenger seat and the air-bag is activated during a collision, it has turned out that the activation of the air-bag causes the passenger more damage than would be the result if the air-bag had remained inactivated.
Furthermore, if the passenger is an adult it has turned out that the air-bag should be activated, regardless of whether or not the passenger wears a seat-belt or not. Thus, it is insufficient to sense if the passenger wears a seat-belt or not, the age of the passenger must also be determined for the air-bag system to provide maximum security.
Also, the International patent application WO 95/00368 discloses a device for detecting the presence of a person in a seat, for example in a vehicle. According to WO 95/00368, two electrodes are provided on opposite sides of the thorax of the seated person. The two electrodes together with the thorax forms a capacitor, where the thorax acts as the dielectric. When the person is breathing the characteristics of the capacitor changes, whereby the changing of the characteristics can be measured. The use of the device according to WO 95/00368 can make it possible to distinguish between different animal, such as between a human and a dog.
However, the device as described in WO 95/00368 has a number of drawbacks. Thus, the device does not enable to distinguish between a human child and an adult. Also, the capacitor used for deriving the measured signal has drawbacks. For example, if a person seated in a seat of a vehicle is wearing a jacket, the characteristics of the dielectric in the capacitor will change, possibly resulting in a malfunction of the detection system.
Thus, the is a problem of how to in a secure manner determine the age of a seated person, in particular of a person seated in a vehicle equipped with an air-bag system.
SUMMARY
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method and an apparatus for monitoring a seated person so that his/her age can be estimated, and to do this regardless of what clothes the seated person is wearing.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method and a system for facilitating rescuing of a seated person in an emergency situation.
This object and others are obtained by means of monitoring a corresponding relationship between the cardiac/respiratory function and a person's body movements, and possibly also other physiological parameters, in order to estimate the age of the person when seated in a seat. The sensors used for detecting the physiological parameters can be located in the seat and preferably also in a seat belt used by the seated person.
Furthermore, the sensors used for measured physiological parameters can also be connected to an alarm system. The alarm system is arranged to compare the sensed physiological parameters with threshold values stored in a memory in the alarm system. If such a threshold value is exceeded, the alarm system triggers an alarm, which is transmitted to an alarm central, for example using a cellular radio system.
The advantage of the invention is that, by means of the method, the apparatus and the system according to the invention, it is possible, in an efficient manner, to monitor and estimate the age of persons seated in different types of vehicles (cars/buses/trains/boats/aircrafts) without disturbing the monitored person in that also the body movements of the monitored person can be taken into account, and also to trigger an alarm if the passenger suddenly would become ill or injured, such if the vehicle he/she is travelling in is involved in an accident.
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Biosys AB
Nixon & Vanderhye P.C.
Pham Toan
Wu Daniel J.
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