A radio wave transmitting/receiving device is placed in a vehicle in such a way that the device is near the back of the seated person, and no discomfort is caused to the back of the seated person. The vehicle seat includes a seat cushion and a seatback connected to a rear part of the seat cushion. The seatback comprises a seatback frame including a left and a right side frame portion extending vertically, and an upper frame portion extending laterally between upper ends of the side frame portions, a pressure receiving member consisting of a plate member configured to support a back of a seated person and provided with a radio wave transmissive property, and supported by the seatback frame via an elastic member, and a radio wave transmitting/receiving device supported on a back surface of the pressure receiving member to irradiate radio wave to a seated person and receive radio wave reflected by the seated person.

A car seat includes an air outlet located in a seat upper portion (a portion provided above a seat cushion and including a seat back and a headrest) to let out air therethrough; an air inlet located in the seat upper portion to draw in air therethrough; at least one fan configured to produce a current of air flowing from the air outlet toward the air inlet at a front side of the seat upper portion; and a scenting device configured to scent air to be forced out through the air outlet. The air outlet and the air inlet are located in such positions that at least part of the headrest is positioned between the air outlet and the air inlet in a direction from the air outlet toward the air inlet as viewed from a front side.

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.

An airflow sensing seat, having a seat body, an airbag, a sensing assembly, and a micro control unit. The airbag is in the seat body. A deformable support structure is in the airbag. The support structure is used to maintain an appropriate amount of gas in the airbag. A transmission mechanism is provided between the airbag and the sensing assembly. The transmission mechanism transmits gas disturbance in the airbag to the sensing assembly. The sensing assembly generates a corresponding analog electrical signal according to the gas disturbance. The sensing assembly is electrically connected to the micro control unit. The sensing assembly transmits the analog electrical signal to the micro control unit. The micro control unit performs analysis and computation on the analog electrical signal so as to acquire a biological signal of a user.

A heat flux sensor is installed in such a way that heat flux emanating from a biological object present at a predetermined position is detectable. It is determined whether or not a biological object is present at the predetermined position by comparing sensing results of the heat flux sensor with determination criteria. The determination criteria is preset according to heat flux that can be sensed when a biological object is present at the predetermined position. When the sensing results of the heat flux sensor satisfy the determination criteria, in other words, when the heat flux sensed by the heat flux sensor is the heat flux emanating from a biological object, it is determined that a biological object is present at the predetermined position. Consequently, it is possible to realize accurate detection of a biological object.

A method for a vehicle includes using sensors in a vehicle seat to detect biometrics of a person sitting in the seat and a vehicle controller determining from the biometrics of the person whether the person requires medical attention. In response to the person requiring medical attention, a request for assistance for the person is broadcasted via a V2X transceiver of the vehicle to medical practitioners of a medical practitioner network who are near a location of vehicle during the broadcasting. The medical practitioner network includes the person as a subscriber and medical practitioners as providers. Alternately, in response to the person requiring medical attention, the vehicle controller uses an autonomous vehicle control system of the vehicle to drive the vehicle to a medical facility.

Vehicular control method to avoid collisions in which a smartphone is coupled to the vehicle while in a vehicular compartment. Data is generated from vehicle-resident sensors about operation of the vehicle and transferred from the vehicle to the smartphone while the smartphone is coupled to the vehicle. A communications network with another vehicle is established using the smartphone and the data transferred from the vehicle to the smartphone and data from sensors on the smartphone is transmitted via the smartphone and established communications network to other vehicle, the data including data about location and movement of the vehicle. Then, while the smartphone is coupled to the vehicle, a vehicular operational function is controlled based in part on data transmitted using the smartphone and established communications network to cause movement of the vehicle to change in order to avoid a collision with the other vehicle.

The present disclosure provides a wakefulness determination method for accurately determining wakefulness. The wakefulness determination method uses a respiration sensor that obtains respiratory data about respiration of a seated occupant, a calculation unit that calculates the respiratory data obtained from the respiration sensor, and a controller including a determination unit that determines a state of the seated occupant. The wakefulness determination method includes: obtaining, by the respiration sensor, respiratory data of the seated occupant; calculating, by the calculation unit, a degree of change in respiration from the obtained respiratory data; and determining, by the determination unit, wakefulness of the seated occupant by using a Bayesian filter where a probability of occurrence of drowsiness in the seated occupant for the degree of change in respiration is taken as a likelihood and the likelihood is multiplied by a prior probability of occurrence of drowsiness.

The present invention is directed to apparatus for detecting a child left unattended in a car seat as well as the status of the connection between the car seat and the vehicle. The apparatus includes a sensor module and a processor. The sensor module including a sensor for measuring force data associated with the coupling between car seat and a vehicle. The processor receives and analyzes the sensor data to determine the status of the child/child seat, and then communicates status data to a caretaker. Counter-measure instructions can also be provided to the vehicle for altering the vehicle state/environment.