The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Mar. 13, 2001
Filed:
Mar. 29, 2000
James Michael Dosdall, Grosse Ile, MI (US);
Ford Global Technologies, Inc., Dearborn, MI (US);
Abstract
A system (,) and method (,) for detecting (,) a vehicle occupant (,) in order to determine (,) a deployment force of a vehicle's air bag system. The system (,) of the present invention has a microwave emitter (,) that emits (,) low power microwaves in short duty cycle pulses at a target (,) having a reflective surface (,) therein. A detector (,) is used to detect (,) microwaves that are reflected from the target (,). Should a human occupant (,) be present in the vehicle, the microwaves will be absorbed by the occupant and according to the method (,) of the present invention, the position, size and weight of the occupant can be determined based on calibrating (,) the detected microwaves. The calibrated data is used to calculate (,) a deployment force for the air bag (,).