Methods and systems are provided for detecting a fuel dispensing nozzle coupled to a fuel tank of a vehicle and providing a visual indication of the presence of the fuel dispensing nozzle to a vehicle operator. In one example, a method may include detecting the fuel dispensing nozzle within the fuel tank and illuminating a portion of a fuel tank access region. Further, vehicle operation may be adjusted based on the detection, and one or more alerts may be communicated to the vehicle operator.

An unattended occupant alert system includes a car seat that may be positioned in a vehicle. A child is selectively seated in the car seat and the car seat has a pair of shoulder straps. An electronic device is included and the electronic device is carried by a caregiver. An alarm unit is coupled between the shoulder straps to selectively and removably attach the shoulder straps together. In this way the alarm unit retains the child in the car seat and the alarm unit is turned on when the shoulder straps are attached together. The alarm unit is in thermal communication with an interior of the vehicle to detect a temperature in the vehicle. Additionally, the alarm unit is in electrical communication with the electronic device. The electronic device emits an alert when the alarm unit is turned on and the alarm unit detects a temperature that exceeds a trigger temperature. In this way the alarm unit alerts the caregiver to a potential environmental danger for the child.

The systems and methods described herein can be applied to a vehicle equipped with a sensor suite that can observe information about a location, for example, a traffic light duration. The system can record information, e.g., the traffic light colors, duration of color changes, and location of the traffic lights and can upload this information to the cloud. Then, the system can augment or learn about the location, e.g., learning of traffic patterns, and store the augmented data as database-based information, where available. The learned information can help a requesting vehicle to better estimate an estimated time of arrival (ETA) for common routes taken, provide more accurate ETAs based on historical knowledge, and/or calculate or provide alternative route information.

A key ring transceiver module activates when a child has been left inside of a car seat when the corresponding buckle transceiver is out of range. The buckle transceiver system includes a weight sensor indicating that a child is inside of the baby seat, a pair of limit or indication switches indicating that a child is retrained within the baby seat, and a pair of PING/PONG sending and receiving radio pairs that communicate range of the baby buckle transceiver from the key ring transceiver. When the baby seat contains a child restrained within, and the transceiver moves out of range, a distress alarm/signal will be enabled on the transceiver to indicate that the baby is still confined to the restraints of the baby seat. The key ring transceiver will continue to signal a distress mechanism until the baby buckle transceiver trigger has been reset by removing the child from the car seat. Although several variations of the embodiment have been presented with similar computational schemes, this present embodiment contains the minimal number of necessary component for effective alerting, and fulfills several requirements of exception to previous system designs. Lastly most systems to date have incorporated elements of the vehicle, which can require OEM installation or absorbent aftermarket fabrication to the vehicle.

A method for controlling a seat is performed by a mobile device in cooperation with a database. The database contains at least one reference data set which contains a physical characteristic data and a seat setting data. The method includes the steps of: a) upon receipt of an input, searching the database to identify which one(s) of the at least one reference data set contains the physical characteristic data that matches the input, the one(s) serving as candidate data set(s); and b) when a total number of the candidate data set(s) identified in step a) is one, outputting, to the seat, the seat setting data contained in the candidate data set for controlling the seat.

Embodiments are directed to system and methods for determining the user identity of a vehicle occupant and identifying a corresponding user profile to provide customer settings for the user. In some embodiments, the seat or position of the user is determined and settings are applied depending on the which seat is occupied by the user. In some embodiments, vehicle settings are updated as additional vehicle occupants enter the vehicle.

A biological sensor is provided with at least two sensors for detecting vibrations, and is configured so that the at least two sensors form layers. One of the at least two sensors is a first sensor used to acquire biological information, and one is a second sensor used to remove noise. A first cushion material for reducing vibrations is disposed between the first sensor and the second sensor. The first cushion material is integrally laminated with the first sensor and the second sensor. This facilitates accurate detection of biological information.

A seat having features of evaluating a physical state of a seated occupant, in which motivation to use the features is enhanced, is provided. A physical state sharable seat is proposed which includes: a seat body; a sensor (8) configured to acquire a measurement value specific to a physical state of an occupant seated on the seat body; and a controller (100) connected to the sensor and thereby allowed to acquire the measurement value from the sensor, and configured to be capable of communicating with other equipment. The controller (100) includes: an evaluation unit (121) configured to compute an evaluation value on the physical state, based on the measurement value; an evaluation value presentation unit (122) configured to present the evaluation value at a terminal to be used by the occupant; a shared data acquisition unit (161) configured to acquire an other-occupant evaluation value that is an evaluation value on a physical state of another person, acquired either by the evaluation unit or from another physical state sharable seat; and a shared data presentation unit (162) configured to present the other-occupant evaluation value at the terminal to be used by the occupant.

A service providing apparatus includes a detector provided on a seat and configured to detect a motion of a user seated on the seat; a control device including a processor and a memory coupled to the processor, having a plurality of service functions and configured to determine a service content in the plurality of service functions based on the motion detected by the detector and a presentation unit configured to present the service content determined by the control device.

A child safety seat is provided and includes a base, a seat body and a notifying system. The seat body is movable relative to the base between a first position and a second position. The notifying system includes at least one actuated device, an actuating component and a notifying device. The at least one actuated device is disposed on one of the base and the seat body. The actuating component is disposed on another one of the base and the seat body and for actuating the at least one actuated device when the seat body reaches at least one of the first position and the second position. The notifying device is electrically connected to the at least one actuated device and configured to generate different types of notifying signals in response to the at least one actuated device when the seat body reaches the first position and the second position.