Electronic circuit device for constantly monitoring the correct use of the safety belt in the area of a vehicle, comprising: general power supply battery and a ignition key; one or more infrared light emitting diodes located at the upper part facing each of the positions of the driver and/or passenger; one or more pulse generators (G.sub.E, . . . , G.sub.En) connected to one or more infrared light emitting diodes; one or more infrared light receiving diodes located at each position with a safety belt; one or more infrared light receiving diodes in each of the safety belts located on the diagonal strap thereof; one or more electronic circuits consisting of two Steps 1 and Stage 2 associated in conjunction with each safety belt, Step 1 commanded by the infrared light receiving diode located in the seat of the driver and/or passengers determines the presence or absence of an occupant and Stage 2 commanded by the infrared light receiving diode located in the diagonal strap of the safety belt is enabled according to the status of Step 1, determining the use of the safety belt; and an audible and/or luminous alarm with an associated timer circuit within the area of use of the safety belt integrated for all devices; each set of steps 1 and 2 of the one or more operating circuits working autonomously for each of the safety belts.

Systems and methods are disclosed related to restraint device (e.g., seatbelt) localization. In one embodiment, the disclosure relates to systems and methods for seatbelt detection and modeling. A vehicle may be occupied by one or more occupants wearing one or more seatbelts. A camera or other sensor is placed within the vehicle to capture images of the one or more occupants. A system analyzes the images to detect and model seatbelts depicted in the images. Specifically, the system may scan the images and areas of the images that may correspond to seatbelts. The system may assemble candidate areas of the images that may correspond to seatbelts, and refine the candidate areas based on various constraints. The system may build models based on the refined candidate areas that indicate the seatbelts. The system may visualize the models indicating the seatbelts using the images.

Methods for marking a seat belt webbing with an infrared compound are described herein. The methods comprise ablating a surface of the seat belt webbing by directing one or more laser pulses toward the seat belt webbing; and coating the ablated surface of the seat belt webbing with the infrared compound, wherein the infrared compound increases absorptivity or reflectivity of the seat belt webbing to infrared radiation. Methods for optically monitoring operation of the seat belt webbing in a vehicle and distinguishing between proper positioning and improper positioning of the seat belt webbing are also disclosed.

Various implementations include a system for adjusting the position of a seatbelt in a vehicle. The system includes a shoulder anchor, at least one sensor, and a processor. The shoulder anchor is for receiving a seatbelt. The shoulder anchor is movable relative to a seat disposed within the vehicle. The processor is in electrical communication with the sensor and a memory. The processor executes computer-readable instructions stored on the memory. The instructions cause the processor to receive sensor data from the sensor, determine whether the seatbelt is within an expected area on a person in the seat based on the received sensor data, and cause the shoulder anchor to move relative to the seat in response to the seatbelt being outside of the expected area on the person in the seat such that the seatbelt is moved into the expected area.

A system includes a base. The system includes a buckle movable away from the base from a retracted position to an extended position. The system includes a lock movable from a locked position that maintains the buckle at the retracted position to an unlocked position that permits movement of the buckle to the extended position. The system includes a spring urging the buckle toward the retracted position.

A seat belt sensor assembly comprises a force sensor coupled to a seat belt webbing. The seat belt sensor assembly utilizes force readings from the force sensor indicating a force level above or below a predetermined threshold to determine if an action needs to be taken to control a vehicle system. Such vehicle systems could include, but are not limited to, an autonomous driving control system, an occupant health system, and a motorized seat belt retractor system. Controlling the vehicle systems could include, but is not limited to, sending audio, visual, and/or haptic warnings to vehicle occupants, including, in one embodiment, that the occupant's respiration rate is indicative of a dangerous health condition. The seat belt sensor assembly may be used in combination with a camera-based occupant monitoring system. In one embodiment, the occupant monitoring system can be used to selectively activate/deactivate discrete activation zones of the force sensor.

A system for detecting improper usage of a seatbelt of a vehicle includes a vehicle seat having a seat cushion and a seat back. A shoulder belt and a lap belt are intended to restrain an occupant sitting on the vehicle seat. The system includes a sensor module associated with the shoulder belt and the lap belt. The sensor module generates signals indicative of at least one parameter associated with the vehicle seat, the shoulder belt, and the lap belt when the occupant is sitting on the vehicle seat. The system also includes a controller that receives the signals indicative of the at least one parameter associated with the seat back, the shoulder belt, and the lap belt. The controller analyzes the received one or more signals, and determines whether the seatbelt is being used improperly by the occupant, based on the analysis.

A computer implemented method for detecting whether a seat belt is used in a vehicle comprises the following steps carried out by computer hardware components: acquiring an image of an interior of the vehicle; determining a plurality of sub-images based on the image; detecting, for at least one of the sub-images, whether a portion of the seat belt is present in the respective sub-image; and determining whether the seat belt is used based on the detecting.

In one embodiment, a system of detecting seat belt operation in a vehicle includes at least one light source configured to emit a predetermined wavelength of light onto structures within the vehicle, wherein at least one of the structures is a passenger seat belt assembly having a pattern that reflects the predetermined wavelength at a preferred luminance. At least one 3-D time of flight camera is positioned in the vehicle to receive reflected light from the structures in the vehicle and provide images of the structures that distinguish the preferred luminance of the pattern from other structures in the vehicle. A computer processor connected to computer memory and the camera includes computer readable instructions causing the processor to reconstruct 3-D information in regard to respective images of the structures and calculate a depth measurement of the distance of the reflective pattern on the passenger seat belt assembly from the camera.

A seat belt apparatus of a vehicle described in the present disclosure includes a seat belt coupled to a seat and including a webbing comprising a detectable material; a vision sensor configured to generate an image by capturing a field of view region including the seat; and a monitoring system configured to detect a length of the webbing e.g., based on the pattern coated with the at least one paint in the image, and determine whether a user wears the seat belt as desired or erroneously wears the seat belt based on the detected length of the webbing.