Appeal No. 2006-0022 Παγε 5
Application No. 09/810,943
occupants where deployment of the airbag would be inappropriate (e.g., a rear facing
infant seat).
As shown in Figure 1, four load cells are attached between the seat frame and
the seat track. The output of the four load cells are processed by a weight sensing
module (see Figure 2) to obtain a total weight reading for the occupant of the seat. In
addition, the load cell outputs can be used to calculate the center of mass for the
occupant of the seat, which information is useful for determining the position of the
occupant on the seat. Lastly, Research Disclosure teaches (last sentence) that "this
design can be used with various load cell designs."
Gagnon
Gagnon's invention relates to an apparatus for sensing the presence and weight
of an occupant of a vehicle seat. In the background of the invention section of the
patent, Gagnon teaches that:
Many vehicles are equipped with safety devices such as airbags, seat belt
pretensioners and so forth to protect persons occupying various seats in the
vehicle. If a seat is unoccupied or is occupied by a person of a particular size, it
may not be necessary to activate a safety device associated with that seat.
Furthermore, if a seat is occupied by a person of a particular size the manner in
which a safety device is employed may be varied accordingly. One indicator of
the size of a seat occupant is his or her weight. In the case of an infant, the
combined weight of the infant and an infant safety seat is useful as an indicator
of occupant size.
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