Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Aisin Seiki Kabushiki Kaisha

Toyota Boshoku Kabushiki Kaisha

Tatsuhiro Okawa

Motomi Iyoda

Fumitoshi Akaike

Koichi Hirota

Kiyoka Matsubayashi

Koji Ito

Koji Aoki

Seiya Nishimura

Takaya Aiyama

Manabu Tsuruta

A vehicle peripheral monitoring apparatus is disclosed. The apparatus includes a forward monitoring unit for monitoring an obstacle within a predetermined forward area extending in a direction forward of an own vehicle; one or more forward-lateral monitoring units for monitoring an obstacle within a predetermined forward-lateral area extending in a direction lateral of the own vehicle relative to the predetermined forward area; and a traveling environment detecting unit for detecting a traveling environment of the own vehicle, wherein the monitoring with the forward-lateral monitoring units is suppressed when the traveling environment detecting unit detects that the own vehicle is traveling on a predetermined road including a highway, and a level of the suppressing of the monitoring with the forward-lateral monitoring unit is eased when the traveling environment detecting unit detects that the own vehicle is traveling in a predetermined area, including a junction, of the predetermined road.

Vehicle peripheral monitoring apparatus

When moving a head rest front portion in a full-open position direction, an ECU determines that the head rest front portion comes close to an occupant head portion on the basis of a detection result of an electrostatic capacitance sensor so as to stop the head rest front portion, and determines that the head rest front portion comes close to the occupant head portion on the basis of an absolute capacitance change with respect to a reference electrostatic capacitance value of the electrostatic capacitance sensor. Alternatively, the ECU determines that the head rest front portion comes close to the occupant head portion on the basis of a change amount of the electrostatic capacitance value of the electrostatic capacitance sensor.

Head rest device for vehicle

A head rest device that improves reliability of detecting a head on the basis of a change in capacitance without complicating a wiring structure. A head rest device is provided with a head rest rear portion configured to be supported to a seat back, and a head rest front portion freely moving forward and backward between a fully-closed position coming close to the head rest rear portion and a fully-open position separated from the head rest rear portion. The head rest front portion is moved by an actuator. The head rest front portion has a sensor electrode structured such that its capacitance is changed as a head of an occupant approaches, and an ECU controlling the actuator so as to move the head rest front portion and detecting the approach of the head of the occupant on the basis of a change of the capacitance of the sensor electrode thereon.

Head rest device

A headrest control apparatus has a rear radar sensor, a PCS-ECU, a headrest drive mechanism that supports a headrest and drives the headrest relative to the vehicle in its longitudinal direction, a motor, a capacitance sensor, and a headrest control portion that controls the motor. The headrest control portion executes a forward drive control in which the headrest starts to be driven forward in response to a start-up signal from the PCS-ECU and the motor is stopped in response to the positional relation between the occupant's head and the headrest reaching a predetermined positional relation. After the forward drive control, the headrest control portion executes a hold control in which the motor is held in a stopped state for a predetermined hold time. After the hold control, the headrest control portion executes a backward drive control in which the headrest is driven backward.

Headrest control apparatus and method

Growing community of inventors

Toyota, Japan

Tatsuhiro Okawa