System for determining the occupancy state of a seat in a vehicle and controlling a component based thereon

The present invention relates generally to the field of determining the occupancy state of the vehicle which entails sensing, detecting, monitoring and/or identifying various objects, and parts thereof, which are located within the passenger compartment of the vehicle. The occupancy state is a broad or narrow description of the state or condition of one or more occupying items in the vehicle. Thus, a determination of the occupancy state may include a determination of the type or class of any occupying items, the size of any occupying items, the position of any occupying item including the orientation of occupying items, the identification of any occupying items and/or the status of any occupying items (whether the occupying items are conscious or unconscious). The determination of the occupancy state is used to control a vehicular component. Method for controlling an occupant protection device in a vehicle in which data is acquired from at least one sensor relating to an occupant in a seat to be protected by the occupant protection device, the type of occupant is classified based on the acquired data and when the occupant is classified as an empty seat or a rear-facing child seat, deployment of the occupant protection device is disabled or adjusted. Otherwise, the size of the occupant is classified based on the acquired data, the position of the occupant is determined by one of a plurality of algorithms selected based on the classified size of the occupant using the acquired data, each algorithm being applicable for a specific size of occupant. Deployment of the occupant protection device is disabled or adjusted when the determined position of the occupant is more likely to result in injury to the occupant if the occupant protection device were to deploy. The algorithms may be pattern recognition algorithms such as neural networks.