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:
May. 21, 2002
Filed:
Sep. 03, 1999
David S. Breed, Boonton Township, Morris County, NJ (US);
Wilbur E. Duvall, Kimberling City, MO (US);
Wendell C. Johnson, San Diego, CA (US);
Automotive Technologies International, Inc., Denville, NJ (US);
Abstract
A vehicle interior monitoring system to identify, locate and/or monitor occupants, including their parts, and other objects in the passenger compartment in which waves are transmitted into a space in the passenger compartment in which an occupying item might be situated and a receiver receives waves modified by passing through the space in the passenger compartment in which the occupying item might be situated. Outputs from the receiver are used to affect another system in the vehicle. Also, the outputs may be analyzed, e.g., by computational means employing pattern recognition technologies, to classify, identify and/or locate the contents. In general, the information obtained by the identification and monitoring system is used to affect the operation of some other system in the vehicle. When the system is installed in the passenger compartment of an automotive vehicle equipped with an airbag, the system determines the position of the vehicle occupant relative to the airbag and, e.g., disables deployment of the airbag if the occupant is positioned so that he/she is likely to be injured by the deployment of the airbag.