US 11,654,850 B2
Distributed sensor system for sensing body parts and persons within the hazard zones of a convertible top
Andreas Strasser, Stockdorf (DE)
Assigned to WEBASTO SE, Stockdorf (DE)
Appl. No. 16/770,461
Filed by WEBASTO SE, Stockdorf (DE)
PCT Filed Dec. 5, 2018, PCT No. PCT/EP2018/083706
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Jun. 5, 2020,
PCT Pub. No. WO2019/110696, PCT Pub. Date Jun. 13, 2019.
Claims priority of application No. 10 2017 129 068.0 (DE), filed on Dec. 6, 2017.
Prior Publication US 2021/0162941 A1, Jun. 3, 2021
Int. Cl. B60R 21/0136 (2006.01); B60R 11/00 (2006.01); G01V 3/08 (2006.01)
CPC B60R 21/0136 (2013.01) [B60R 11/00 (2013.01); G01V 3/088 (2013.01); B60R 2011/004 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. Safety system for detecting a body part in an area of a vehicle comprising:
a plurality of sensor nodes which respectively have a capacitive sensor and a processing unit,
wherein the capacitive sensor has at least one electrode and is designed to capture a capacitance change on account of a body part approaching the electrode, and
wherein the processing unit is designed to generate capacitance change data on the basis of a capacitance change captured by the capacitive sensor;
wherein capacitive change data are binary data that contain information indicating whether or not there is a body part in an area assigned to a sensor node;
an evaluation unit which is designed to detect that there is a body part in an area of the vehicle at least on the basis of received capacitance change data received from the plurality of sensor nodes;
a data transmission device for transmitting the generated capacitance change data from a sensor node to the evaluation unit.