A vehicle seat occupant classification system for use in a vehicle seat includes a weight-responsive sensor, at least one bracket member serving as a holder for the weight-responsive sensor, and an evaluation unit configured to evaluate a status of the at least one weight-responsive sensor. The bracket member is fixedly attached to the seat base. If a mechanical load at least corresponding to a first pre-determined threshold value is applied by a seat occupant, a portion of the vehicle seat comes into mechanical interaction with the at least one weight-responsive sensor, and is configured to change a status of the at least one weight-responsive sensor if a mechanical load at least corresponding to a second pre-determined threshold value is applied. Relative movement between the seat base and the at least one weight-responsive sensor is at least excluded for applied mechanical loads that are smaller than the first pre-determined threshold value.

A system for detecting vibrations from a surface is provided. The system includes a coherent light source for projecting a multi-beam pattern onto the surface and an imaging device for mapping a speckle field generated by each spot formed on the surface by the multi-beam pattern to a unique region of an imaging sensor. The system further includes a processor for processing speckle field information received by the imaging sensor and deriving surface vibration information.

Provided is an apparatus for sensing a remaining passenger in a vehicle and generating an alarm. The apparatus includes a first sensor unit provided on the ceiling of the inside of the vehicle and configured to sense presence or absence of a remaining passenger per seat when a door of a driver's seat is open in an engine off or on state, and a controller configured to generate an alarm when there is a remaining passenger in a seat other than the driver's seat when the engine is turned off and to determine whether the door of the driver's seat is closed and generate an alarm when the first sensor unit senses exit of a driver and presence of a remaining passenger.

A system for detecting vibrations from a surface is provided. The system includes a coherent light source for projecting a multi-beam pattern onto the surface and an imaging device for mapping a speckle field generated by each spot formed on the surface by the multi-beam pattern to a unique region of an imaging sensor. The system further includes a processor for processing speckle field information received by the imaging sensor and deriving surface vibration information.

An electronic device for detecting the presence of an occupant on board a vehicle includes an audio sensor to acquire sound-sensing signals on board the vehicle. A movement sensor acquires movement-sensing signals associated with movement of the vehicle and an environmental sensor acquires environmental-sensing signals on board the vehicle. A processing unit is coupled to the audio sensor, movement sensor, and environmental sensor processes the respective sound-sensing signals, movement-sensing signals, and environmental-sensing signals to monitor the presence on board the vehicle of the occupant and the absence of a responsible person to determine a situation of danger and to activate a corresponding alarm warning.

A method and an apparatus for identifying occupancy of a seat use a camera. In order to achieve permanently reliable identification of the occupancy of a seat, the camera is oriented such that it captures at least one area of interest of the seat. An evaluation apparatus is used to identify the area of interest in a picture taken by the camera and to store a position for the area of interest. The evaluation apparatus selects the area of interest in pictures subsequently taken by the camera at the stored position and compares the area of interest with at least one stored picture sample. A result of this comparison is taken as a basis for identifying the seat as being occupied. In addition, an apparatus having a camera and an evaluation apparatus is described for performing the method.

The invention relates to a seat occupancy recognition device for recognising the occupancy of a seat, characterised by at least one volume detection device with at least one first sensor, which is provided and designed to detect a volume on the vehicle seat, and at least one body function detection device with at least one second sensor, which is provided and designed to detect body functions, wherein the first sensor comprises a detection area, the maximum being in a range over and/or in front of the seat.

The invention relates to a seat occupancy recognition device for recognising the occupancy of a seat, characterised by at least one volume detection device with at least one first sensor, which is provided and designed to detect a volume on the vehicle seat, and at least one body function detection device with at least one second sensor, which is provided and designed to detect body functions, and at least one body function recognition device for recognising the detected body functions.

Provided is an apparatus for sensing a remaining passenger in a vehicle and generating an alarm. The apparatus includes a first sensor unit provided on the ceiling of the inside of the vehicle and configured to sense presence or absence of a remaining passenger per seat when a door of a driver's seat is open in an engine off or on state, and a controller configured to generate an alarm when there is a remaining passenger in a seat other than the driver's seat when the engine is turned off and to determine whether the door of the driver's seat is closed and generate an alarm when the first sensor unit senses exit of a driver and presence of a remaining passenger.

There is provided a system comprising a plurality of movable seats arranged in a seating area, a detection device, a non-transitory memory storing an executable code, a hardware processor executing the executable code to receive a first input from the detection device indicating an individual is present in the seating area, determine a first position of the individual in the seating area at a first time based on the first input, and arrange the plurality of seats in a first configuration based on the first position of the individual, wherein arranging the plurality of seats includes moving at least one of the plurality of seats to a new position.