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. 27, 2001
Filed:
Sep. 03, 1998
NEC Corporation, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
A passenger detection system comprises an antenna electrode, an oscillation circuit, a current detection circuit, a phase difference detection circuit, and a control circuit. The antenna electrode is placed on the upper side of a seat. The oscillation circuit generates a high frequency low voltage oscillation signal in order to generate a weak alternating electric field around the antenna electrode. The current detection circuit detects a transmission current which passes between the oscillation circuit and the antenna electrode according to the weak alternating electric field which is generated around the antenna electrode. The phase difference detection circuit detects the phase difference between the oscillation signal supplied from the oscillation circuit and an output signal which is supplied to the antenna electrode. And the presence or absence of a passenger seated on the seat is judged by the control circuit based on the outputs of the current detection circuit and the phase difference detection circuit. Especially, the passenger detection system needs only one antenna electrode, therefore judgment on the presence or absence of a passenger seated on the seat can be executed with simplified circuit composition and low cost.