JP3113439B2 - Vehicle head restraint - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a head restraint for a vehicle provided on a seat for preventing or reducing injury of an occupant's neck at the time of a rear collision.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a vehicle head restraint, in order to more effectively prevent and reduce occupant injury at the time of a rear collision, for example, as described in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 1-67942, It has been considered to arrange a water bag on the back of the headrest in the headrest and adjust the amount of water stored in the water bag to match the curvature of the back of the occupant's head.

[0003]

However, in this case, there is no means for detecting the curvature of the back of the head of the seated person, and if the seated person is merely seated, the headrest will have an optimum shape corresponding to the curvature of the back of the head of the seated person. However, since the headrest becomes the optimum shape only after the occupant presses the back of the head against the headrest, the headrest lacks responsiveness, and a sufficient effect for preventing or reducing cervical injury at the time of a rear collision cannot be obtained.

Therefore, the present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and detects the curvature of the back of the occupant of the occupant and adjusts the shape of the head restraint body in advance to match the shape of the occipital region. It is an object of the present invention to improve the effect of preventing and reducing the injury of the neck at the time of rear collision.

[0005]

A head restraint for a vehicle according to the present invention is provided for a head of an occupant seated in a seat installed in a vehicle cabin and a rear head of a head restraint body.
Two imaging means for imaging the contact portion from above and from the side,
The images from the two image pickup means are processed and the head and head of the occupant are processed.
The occiput and head restraint when the occipital abutment of the dress train body is viewed from above and from the side
The occiput and head restraint main body viewed from above and from the side by deriving the outline of the occipital abutment part of the main body
Processing means for calculating the curvature of the occipital region of the head, a plurality of fluid bags contained inside the headless train body and filled with air, liquid, etc., and the shape of the occipital region of the headless train body Is the calculated occipital region
The difference between the curvature of the tangent portion and the calculated occipital curvature is predicted.
Adjusting means for adjusting the amount of fluid in each of the fluid bags so as to be equal to or less than the set allowable value .

[0006]

According to the present invention, when the occupant is seated, the images obtained by the two image pickup means are processed by the processing means, the contour of the occipital region is derived, and the curvature of the occipital region from above and from the side is calculated. fluid volume in each fluid bag by adjusting means is adjusted to fit pre headrest Ray
The shape of the occipital abutment part of the
Difference between the calculated occipital abutment curvature and occipital curvature
Can be formed in accordance with the back of the occupant so that is less than or equal to a preset allowable value , and the effect of preventing and reducing the injury of the cervix at the time of a rear collision can be improved.

[0007]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a vehicle head restraint according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of an arrangement, FIGS. 3 and 4 are explanatory diagrams of an operation, and FIG. .

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a first and a second C, which are imaging means, are provided on a ceiling and a center pillar on the right side of a vehicle interior.
CD camera (CCD camera is simply called camera)
The heads of the occupant sitting in the driver's seat 3 are imaged from above and from the right side by the cameras 1 and 2, and the images captured by the cameras 1 and 2 are binarized by the image processing circuit 4. Then, the contour of the occiput when the occupant's head is viewed upward and to the right is derived, and the curvature of the occipital viewed from above and to the right is calculated by the ECU 5.
Here, the image processing circuit 4 and the ECU 5 constitute processing means.

Then, as shown in FIG. 3 and FIG.
A plurality of air bladders 7 as fluid bags are housed vertically and horizontally in a headless train main body 6 mounted on the seat back 3 'of FIG. The air in the air bag 7 is supplied and exhausted, respectively, and these pumps 8 are controlled by the above-described ECU 5, that is, the shape of the backrest contact portion of the head restraint main body 6 has the curvature calculated by the image processing circuit 4. Further, each pump 8 is controlled by the ECU 5 so that the air amount of each air bag 7 is adjusted.

The pump 8 and the ECU 5 are housed inside the seat back 3 ', for example, as shown in FIG.

Next, the control operation will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

When the occupant is seated in the driver's seat 3, the seat is detected by, for example, a seat detection sensor provided in the driver's seat 3 and the head restraint control system is activated. The head is imaged (step S1), the images captured by the cameras 1 and 2 are binarized by the image processing circuit 4 (step S2), and the outline of the occupant's back when viewed from above and right is derived. You.

At this time, the binarization processing by the image processing circuit 4 is performed by determining whether the luminance level of each pixel of, for example, 256 × 256 is higher or lower than a predetermined threshold value. An outline is obtained.

Next, based on the contour of the occipital region, the ECU 5 calculates the plane curvature Ra of the occipital region as viewed from above as shown in FIG. 3 and the lateral curvature of the occipital region as viewed from the side as shown in FIG. Rb is calculated (step S3),
The ECU 5 calculates the air supply / discharge amount of each pump 8 so that the backrest contact portion of the head restraint body 6 has the calculated curvatures Ra and Rb (step S4).
A supply / discharge control signal is output from the ECU 5 to each pump 8 to drive each pump 8 and adjust the amount of air in each air bag 7 (step S5).

Further, the backrest contact portion of the head restraint body 6 is imaged by the cameras 1 and 2 (step S6), and the same processing as the above-described binarization processing is performed by the image processing circuit 4 (step S7). ), The outline of the rear part of the head restraint body 6 when viewed from above and from the right side is derived.

Then, based on the contour of the occipital region of the head restraint body 6 by the ECU 5, the plane curvature Ra 'of the occipital region as viewed from above as shown in FIG.
And the side curvature Rb 'of the occipital abutment as viewed from the side as shown in FIG. 4 is calculated (step S8), and the ECU 5 calculates the difference ΔRa between the plane curvatures Ra and Ra', and the side curvatures Rb and Rb '. Is calculated (step S
9) It is determined whether these differences ΔRa and ΔRb are each equal to or smaller than a predetermined allowable value (step S10).

Next, the determination result of step S10 is NO.
If it is, the process returns to step S1, and if the determination result is YES, each pump 8 is stopped (step S11), and the occipital contact portion of the head restraint main body 6 is set to a shape substantially matching the occupant's occipital region. The operation is completed.

Therefore, the curvature of the occipital region of the occupant can be detected and the shape of the head restraint body 6 can be adjusted to the shape of the occipital region in advance. Can be planned.

Although the above embodiment has been described with reference to the case where the present invention is applied only to the driver's seat, it is needless to say that the present invention can be applied to a passenger seat and a rear seat other than the driver's seat.

In place of the air bag 7, a fluid bag filled with a fluid such as a liquid such as oil or a gas other than air may be used.

[0021]

As described above, according to the vehicle head restraint of the present invention, the occupant's occipital region is image-processed.
And deriving a contour of the back of the head contact portion of the headrest rain DOO body, upper, occipital and occipital from the side, respectively
Calculating a curvature of the contact portion, the back of the head and back of the head contact portion
Since the fluid amount of each fluid bag is adjusted by the adjusting means so that the difference between the two curvatures is equal to or less than the allowable value , the shape of the rear head contact portion of the headless train body is previously set to a shape corresponding to the occipital region of the occupant. It is possible to improve the effect of preventing and reducing the injury of the neck at the time of a rear collision, which is extremely effective as a measure for improving safety.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a vehicle head restraint according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of the arrangement of FIG.

FIG. 3 is an operation explanatory diagram of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is an operation explanatory diagram of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of FIG. 1;

[Explanation of symbols]

 1, 1st, 2nd camera 3 Driver's seat 4 Image processing circuit 5 ECU 6 Headless train body 7 Air bag 8 Pump

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Kazuyoshi Ishimori 3000, Yamanoue, Ryuo-cho, Gamo-gun, Shiga Prefecture Inside the Shiga Technical Center, Daihatsu Industries Co., Ltd. Daihatsu Industrial Co., Ltd. Shiga Technical Center (56) References JP-A-60-158808 (JP, A) JP-A-1-67942 (JP, U) JP-A-57-93246 (JP, U) JP3 −96751 (JP, U) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) A47C 7/38 A47C 31/12 G06T 15/62 H04N 5/225

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. Two image pickup means for picking up an occupant's head seated on a seat and a rear abutment portion of a head restraint main body, which are installed in a vehicle interior, from above and from the side, and images obtained by the two image pickup means are provided. Treated crew head and headrest
Of the occiput and the head restraint body when the occipital abutment part of the rain body is viewed from above and from the side
The occiput and the occiput of the head restraint body viewed from above and from the side by deriving the outline of the occipital abutment part
Processing means for calculating the curvature of the contact portion, the headrest rain bets housed inside the main body air, a plurality of fluid bag liquid or the like is filled, the shape of the occipital abutting portions of the headrest rain DOO body wherein Of the calculated occipital abutment
The difference between the curvature and the calculated occipital curvature is preset.
Adjusting means for adjusting the amount of fluid in each of the fluid bags so as to be equal to or less than a predetermined allowable value .