Siemens Aktiengesellschaft

Siemens Aktiengellschaft

Birgit Rösel

Klaus Hofbeck

Arnd Stielow

Thomas Klement

Mario Haselsteiner

Roland Wagner

Lorenz Pfau

Janos Gila

Wolfgang Konrad

Stephan Zecha

Michael Stippler

Jürgen Herold

A single high-frequency transmitter emits radiation in a vehicle () comprising several seats (), said high-frequency radiation being reflected depending on whether a seat is occupied, transmitted to a receiver and evaluated with regard to the radiation intensity. In addition, the reliability of the identification is increased, even when the occupant is out of position, by the provision of at least one reflector () per seat in or on an allocated seat-belt ().

System and method for identifying seat occupancy in a vehicle

Disclosed is a system for detecting seat occupancy in a vehicle, comprising a microwave transmitter and several reflectors which are provided with a small area and are disposed within a vehicle seat, especially within the backrest of the vehicle seat. A greater or smaller number of reflectors are enabled if a person occupying the seat leans forward, resulting in a jump in intensity each time an additional reflector is enabled. Said jumps in intensity can be used in an advantageous manner for detecting the exact position of the person on the seat. In particular, an airbag can be prevented from deploying and the risks associated therewith can be avoided when the person leans far forward. Alternatively, receivers can be disposed within the seat instead of reflectors.

System and method for detecting the seat occupancy in a vehicle

A classifying seat occupancy detection device is used to classify whether a particular seat is occupied by an adult, an infant or not at all. Depending on the classification the door lock assigned to the seat is automatically switched either to a childproof mode or to a non-childproof mode, without the vehicle driver having to do anything.

Locking system for a motor vehicle and method for controlling such a locking system

Disclosed is a device comprising a transceiver () which transmits HF signals that are reflected back by means of reflectors () located in the seats. Diagnostic reflectors () are disposed at the edge of the seats in order to diagnose the reflectors (). Said diagnostic reflectors () are disposed such that the diagnostic reflectors are normally not covered up by a person () sitting on a seat (). The diagnosis is carried out at the same time as the person is identified.

Device and method for detecting the position of a person on a seat of a motor vehicle

The invention relates to a device for occupant protection in a motor vehicle and for anti-theft protection of the motor vehicle, comprising an airbag (), which may be inflated with gas by means of a filling device, a transceiver (), for electromagnetic waves () and an occupant protection analytical unit () connected thereto. An occupant protection interrogation unit () is arranged on the inflatable airbag (), which is wirelessly interrogated by the transceiver (). Information on the degree and/or speed of unfolding of the airbag is thus provided to the occupant protection analytical unit (). The transceiver () may furthermore wirelessly interrogate a portable anti-theft interrogation unit (), for example, a chipcard and hence provide an anti-theft analytical unit () with information about the authorisation of the anti-theft interrogation unit () and/or the separation of the anti-theft interrogation unit () from the transceiver () based on the returned signal.

Device for occupant protection in a motor vehicle and for anti-theft protection of the motor vehicle

In a method for self-diagnosis of a system for seat occupancy detection, in particular for self-diagnosis of a HOBBIT system, a self-diagnosis signal that has been modulated in a predetermined manner is transmitted by the transmit unit to the receive unit of the base station and analyzed, preferably with the reflectors deactivated. From the analysis it is possible to make deductions about the operational integrity of the base station.

Method for self-diagnosis of a system

The position and the weight of a person, in particular a person on a motor vehicle seat, is determined. Reflectors are used to reflect electromagnetic radiation from a transceiver. The attenuation of the sensor reflector radiation enables a report on the seat position of a person in the radiation path. An antenna of each sensor reflector is connected to an electrical load assigned thereto, which is dependent on the weight of the person acting upon it. Depending on this weight, weight information about the person is superimposed by the load onto the reflected sensor reflector signal. The reflected sensor reflector signal is received by the transceiver and fed to the evaluation unit after a signal pre-processing, which enables the weight information of the person to be evaluated.

Devices and method for detecting the position and the weight of a person

A system for determining seat occupancy in a motor vehicle includes a microwave transmitter, a microwave receiver and preferably a reflector. If a person is between those appliances, the microwave radiation is attenuated. The reflector can be a backscattering device, such that the radiation received by the receiver is unequivocally associated with the reflector. Furthermore or alternatively, the transit time of the microwaves can be measured, to be subsequently processed in combination with an analysis of the seated position of passengers. In preferred embodiments, the microwave radiation diffraction properties around an object are also used to obtain the seated position of passengers. The determination of a seat occupancy and optionally of seat occupancy mode can be advantageously used for locking or on the other hand releasing an airbag.

System and method for detecting seat occupancy in a vehicle

The device has a transceiver which transmits high-frequency signals, which are reflected back by reflectors in the seats. Occupied seats are detected on the basis of signal propagation delays and/or reflector detections and/or receiving intensities. In addition, it is possible to detect with the aid of a belt sensor whether or not a safety belt is fastened.

Device and method for detecting an object or a person on a seat of vehicle

A system for detecting the seat occupancy in a vehicle includes a microwave transmitter () and a plurality of small-area reflectors () which are arranged in the vehicle. By activating or deactivating the different reflectors () during different time intervals, the reflectors () can be identified via the unequivocal assignment between the time intervals and the reflectors. This makes it possible to use narrow-band microwave radiation, since it is then not absolutely necessary to identify the reflectors () with the aid of different frequencies. It is also possible to arrange receivers in the seat () instead of reflectors ().

Taking as a starting point known security apparatuses and their methods for distance-dependent initiation of functions in or at an object, the reliability of distance measurements is essentially increased by carrying out a series of distance measurements, an associated quality value (G) being calculated by a mathematical function in each case for the measuring results (M&#x2013;M, R, R) of said distance measurements. Only those measured values which fall below a certain quality value (Krit) as a threshold value are generally accepted for an analysis in respect of initiating a distance-related function. Developments provide for selecting measured values beforehand with reference to a level measurement, in order to further increase the reliability, or applying methods of statistical analysis subsequently.

Method and security apparatus for validating an authorization for locking and unlocking and/or using an object

An antitheft protection system for a vehicle () comprises at least one transmitting and receiving unit () connected to the vehicle (), at least one code transmitter (), which can communicate with the at least one transmitting and receiving unit (), and at least one base unit (), which wirelessly communicates with the at least one transmitting and receiving unit ().

Antitheft protection system, method for operating an antitheft protection system and components of an antitheft protection system

A method for determining the position of at least one second transmitting and receiving device () in respect of a first transmitting and receiving device in a passive access control system operating in the GHz range, comprising the steps of using a radar method, wherein signals (f, f) are received in the first transmitting and receiving device on the left-hand side and right-hand side of a modulation frequency (f), determining the distance of two signals (f, f) closest to the left-hand side and right-hand side modulation frequency (f) wherein the distance is proportional to the distance between the first transmitting and receiving device and at least one second transmitting and receiving device (), so that multipath propagations are not taken into consideration.

METHOD AND DEVICE FOR DETERMINING THE POSITION OF AT LEAST ONE SECOND TRANSMITTING AND RECEIVING DEVICE IN RESPECT OF A FIRST TRANSMITTING AND RECEIVING DEVICE IN A PASSIVE ACCESS CONTROL SYSTEM OPERATING IN THE GHZ RANGE

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Wuppertal, Germany

Birgit Rösel