US 7,516,004 B2
Vehicular passenger protection system against lateral collision
Kiminari Kawasoe, Anjo (Japan); and Seiya Ide, Okazaki (Japan)
Assigned to DENSO CORPORATION, Kariya (Japan)
Filed on Oct. 31, 2006, as Appl. No. 11/589,946.
Application 11/589946 is a continuation of application No. 10/653066, filed on Sep. 03, 2003, granted, now 7,191,043.
Claims priority of application No. 2002-272118 (JP), filed on Sep. 18, 2002; and application No. 2003-168043 (JP), filed on Jun. 12, 2003.
Prior Publication US 2007/0043494 A1, Feb. 22, 2007
Int. Cl. B60R 21/01 (2006.01); B60R 21/0132 (2006.01); G06F 7/00 (2006.01); G06F 17/00 (2006.01)
U.S. Cl. 701—45  [701/36; 701/82; 180/232; 180/271; 180/274] 8 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A protection system against lateral collision for a vehicle including a driver seat and a passenger protecting device for protecting a passenger against a lateral collision, the protection system comprising:
a first sensing section, provided forward of a rear end of the driver seat, configured to sense a magnitude of a first lateral force applied thereto;
a second sensing section, provided rearward of the rear end of the driver seat, configured to sense a magnitude of a second lateral force applied thereto;
a determining section configured to determine that the vehicle has the lateral collision; and
a controlling section configured to command actuation of the passenger protecting device in response to determination of the lateral collision by the determining section,
wherein the determining section is configured to calculate a difference between sensed magnitudes of the first lateral force and the second lateral force, and to correct the sensed magnitudes of the first lateral force and the second lateral force by the calculated difference, and to compare corrected magnitudes of the first lateral force and the second lateral force with a first threshold and a second threshold, respectively, thereby to determine the lateral collision.