Description

The present invention relates to a method for detecting a presence of at least one liv ing being inside a cabin of a vehicle, a system of a vehicle for detecting a presence of at least one living being inside a cabin of said vehicle, a computer program product and a computer-readable data carrier.

Such methods, systems, computer program products and computer-readable data carriers are already known in different embodiments.

Known methods for detecting a presence of at least one living being inside a cabin of a vehicle, systems of a vehicle for detecting a presence of at least one living being in side a cabin of said vehicle, computer program products and a computer-readable data carriers are engaging radar systems, cameras, capacitive sensors as well as sys tems combining the aforementioned technologies. Such systems are quite compli cated to handle and expensive.

It is an object of the invention to provide a method for detecting a presence of at least one living being inside a cabin of a vehicle, a system of a vehicle for detecting a pres ence of at least one living being inside a cabin of said vehicle, a computer program product and a computer-readable data carrier at a lower cost. Furthermore, by using the invention instead of using a camera privacy concerns have not to be handled with.

This object of the invention is solved by a method for detecting a presence of at least one living being inside a cabin of a vehicle according to claim 1 , a system of a vehicle for detecting a presence of at least one living being inside a cabin of said vehicle ac cording to claim 6, a computer program product according to claim 11 and a com puter-readable data carrier according to claim 12. The inventive method for detecting a presence of at least one living being inside a cabin of a vehicle by means of radio signals, comprises the following steps: Transmit ting at least one transmission signal from at least one transmission unit positioned at a transmission unit position inside said cabin towards a surveillance area of an interior of said cabin; Receiving responding signals from said surveillance area caused by a reflection of said transmission signal in said surveillance area with at least two receiv ing units each positioned at a receiving unit position inside said cabin, whereat all of said receiving unit positions are placed apart from each other and said responding sig nals are being received by anyone of said receiving units; Evaluating of said respond ing signals by means of an evaluation unit, whereat said evaluation unit is linked to said at least one transmission unit and said at least two receiving units in a signal transmitting manner; Detecting the presence of said living being in said surveillance area of said interior according to said evaluation of said responding signals in said evaluation unit and triggering an action of at least one actuator of said vehicle accord ing to said detection of said presence of said living being.

Furthermore, the inventive system of a vehicle for detecting a presence of at least one living being inside a cabin of said vehicle by means of radio signals comprises at least one transmission unit positioned at a transmission unit position inside said cabin de signed and configured for transmitting at least one transmission signal towards a sur veillance area of an interior of said cabin, at least two receiving units each positioned at a receiving unit position inside said cabin designed and configured for receiving re sponding signals from said surveillance area, each caused by a reflection of said transmission signal in said surveillance area, whereat all of said receiving unit posi tions are placed apart from each other and said responding signals are being received by anyone of said receiving units, an evaluation unit designed and configured for eval uating said responding signals in order to detect the presence of said living being in said surveillance area of said interior, whereat said evaluation unit is linked to said at least one transmission unit and said at least two receiving units in a signal transmitting manner, and at least one actuator, whereat said actuator is designed and configured to be triggered according to said detection of said presence of said living being. Said responding signals triggered by said at least one transmission signal depend on said living being to be detected as well as on the properties of so-called communica tion channels, thus areas between said transmission unit and said living being on one side and between said living being and said receiving units on the other side. These communication channels mainly depend on the properties of a medium between an tennas of said at least one transmission unit and said receiving units including the di rect path and reflected multipaths due to living beings and/or nonliving objects, which is dynamic and directly dependent on the geometry, positioning and materials of said medium in between said aforementioned antennas of said transmission unit and said receiving units. Said evaluated responding signals will be reflected from everything in between. In case of living beings, said responding signals will be often a combination of multipath signals that reflect not just from the living beings. Said responding signals are therefore a combination of several reflections. Also, one may think of a technique where before a living being is entering said vehicle, said responding signals depend ing on said communication channels are also being evaluated. During and after enter ing of said living being, the properties of said communication channels will be different and therefore this change will be detectable. Thus, said evaluation of said responding signals in said evaluation unit will yield different results depending on whether or not at least one living being is in said surveillance area of said interior of said vehicle. That way, a presence of said at least one living being can be detected.

A main advantage of the inventive method for detecting a presence of at least one liv ing being inside a cabin of a vehicle, the inventive system of a vehicle for detecting a presence of at least one living being inside a cabin of said vehicle, the inventive com puter program product and the inventive computer readable-data carrier is, that the presence of at least one living being inside a cabin of a vehicle can be detected with less cost and by keeping the privacy of living beings detected without further actions. For example, radar systems or camera systems are quite expensive. Said triggered action of at least one actuator of said vehicle according to said detection of said pres ence of said living being could be of any useful and suitable manner. For example, displaying an alert to said driver to make sure, that every occupant of said vehicle has fasten his or her seatbelt. Thus, the wording “for detecting a presence of at least one living being inside a cabin of a vehicle” can also mean “for detecting an occupancy of at least one space in an in terior of a cabin by at least one living being inside said cabin of a vehicle”. That means, with the invention not only a presence of at least one living being inside a cabin may be detected, but an occupancy of a certain space inside said cabin of said vehicle can be detected, too.

Of course, other systems of said vehicle can also be triggered. Another example is, that said actuator is built as a transmitter for transferring data from said vehicle to a cloud or another external receiver for further processing or statistics.

Further advantages developments of the inventive method, system, computer program product and computer-readable data carrier are apparent from the sub-claims as well as from the following description of an exemplary embodiment of the inventive method and system by means of the attached figure.

A particular preferable development of the inventive method is, said at least one trans mission signal and said responding signals are configured to use Bluetooth™ fre quency bands and/or Bluetooth™ protocols and/or to use WiFi™ frequency bands and/or WiFi™ protocols. Flereby, the inventive method can be realized with well- known technologies, which are already widely used. This is especially advantages, if Bluetooth™ and/or WiFi™ is already installed in said vehicle and in use for other sys tems. Thus, existing technical systems of said vehicle can be used for also another purpose, namely for processing the inventive method. That means, no extra system has to be installed and configured, but an already existing system can be enhanced in its functionality.

In parallel, a particular preferably development of the inventive system is, said at least one transmission unit and said at least two receiving units are designed and config ured to use Bluetooth™ frequency bands and/or Bluetooth™ protocols and/or to use WiFi™ frequency bands and/or WiFi™ protocols. Another advantageous development of the method according to the invention is, that said surveillance area is covering at least a driver’s seat of a driver of said vehicle, preferably said driver’s seat and a front-seat passenger place of a front-seat passen ger. That means, that at least the most important area or areas of said interior of said cabin is/are surveyed for the presence of a living being. For example, it is possible to find out about an occupancy of said driver’s seat or said driver’s seat and said front- seat passenger place by using the invention. Of course, the invention enables to de tect an occupancy of other places for passengers, namely rear passengers’ seats, too.

According to a further advantageous development of the inventive method, said evalu ation of said responding signals is configured to detect a vital sign of said driver, pref erably of all of said living beings detected, whereat said action of said actuator is being triggered according to said detection of said vital sign. Hereby, the safety of said vehi cle and of other traffic participants is enhanced. For example, in case of a negative vi tal sign of said driver of said vehicle an alert can be transmitted to an outside of said vehicle in order to alert other traffic participants that a dangerous situation may occur.

A further preferable development of the method according to the invention is, that said evaluation of said responding signals is configured to detect a gesture of said driver, preferably of all of said living beings detected, whereat said action of said actuator is being triggered according to said detection of said gesture. That way an alertness of said driver can be recognized. If an alertness of said driver is detected to be not suffi cient for driving said vehicle, a visual and/or acoustic alert can be given to said driver by using a common human machine interface of said vehicle. Furthermore, it is possi ble to control certain functions of said vehicle by doing specific gestures.

The function of said transmitting unit and/or receiving units can be of any suitable manner.

A further preferably development of the system according to the invention is, that said transmission unit is designed and configured as one of said receiving units or one of said receiving units is designed and configured as said transmission unit. That way, said transmission unit or one of said receiving units is used in a double function, namely as said transmitter and as one of said receivers. Thus, the equipment needed is reduced and the cost for realizing the inventive system, too.

Another advantageous development of the system according to the invention is, that said receiving unit positions are positioned even over said interior, preferably at pe ripheral positions of said interior. Hereby, the surveillance area is surveyed from dif ferent positions. Furthermore, the communication channels to each of said receiving units are influenced in different ways by said at least one living being detected by said system, which enhances the detection of said at least one living being as well as the detection of said vital sign and/or said gesture of said living being, too.

Still another advantageous development of the system according to the invention is, that said transmission unit is positioned at a front of said interior, preferably at a pe ripheral position of said interior. That way, said transmission unit is positioned in a very advantageous manner with respect to the transmission of said transmitting signal to said surveillance area with respect to said driver’s seat. Thus, the very important driver’s seat is surveyed by the inventive system in a very accurate manner.

The figure is a schematic illustration of an inventive system, wherein only the details necessary for the understanding of the invention are shown.

It is shown by the only figure:

Fig. 1 an exemplary embodiment of the system according to the invention in a bird’s eye view.

Fig. 1 displays an exemplary embodiment of the system according to the invention in a very schematic way. In Fig. 1 a vehicle 2 is displayed, whereat said vehicle 2 is designed as an automobile. Said vehicle 2 comprises a cabin 4 with an interior 6 inside said cabin 4, whereat a driver’s seat 8 for a driver of said vehicle 2, a front passenger seat 10 for a passenger and rear seats 12 for further passengers of said vehicle 2 are mounted inside said cabin 4. Furthermore, said vehicle 2 comprises a system 14 for detecting a presence of at least one living being inside said cabin 4 by means of radio signals, positioned in said interior 6 of said cabin 4. Said aforementioned driver and passengers are not dis played in Fig. 1.

Said system 14 for detecting a presence of at least one living being inside said cabin 4 by means of radio signals comprises one transmission unit 16 positioned at a trans mission unit position inside said cabin 4 designed and configured for transmitting at least one transmission signal towards a surveillance area of said interior 6 of said cabin 4 and three receiving units 18 each positioned at a receiving unit position inside said cabin 4 each designed and configured for receiving responding signals from said surveillance area each caused by a reflection of said transmission signal in said sur veillance area, whereat all of said receiving unit positions 18 are placed apart from each other and said responding signals are being received by anyone of said receiv ing units 18.

In this embodiment of the inventive system, said transmission unit 16 is designed and configured as one of said receiving units, too. Thus, said transmission unit 16 is also designed and configured for receiving said responding signals from said surveillance area, caused by a reflection of said transmission signal in said surveillance area.

Thus, in total there are four receiving units 16, 18 positioned in said interior 6 inside said cabin 4.

As can be seen from Fig. 1 , all of said receiving units 16, 18 are positioned even over said interior 6, namely at peripheral positions at a front, a rear and on two sides of said interior 6 of said cabin 4. Said transmitting unit 16 is positioned at said front of said in terior 6 of said cabin 4, whereas said receiving units 18 are positioned at said rear and said two sides of said interior 6 of said cabin 4 of said vehicle 2. Said transmission signal is symbolized in Fig. 1 by an arrow 20 and said responding signals are symbolized in Fig. 1 by arrows 22, 24, 26, 28.

Said transmission unit 16 and said receiving units 18 are each designed and config ured to use WiFi™ frequency bands and/or WiFi™ protocols. Of course, in other em bodiments of the invention, said transmission unit and said at least two receiving units can be designed and configured to use Bluetooth™ frequency bands and/or Blue tooth™ protocols or to use Bluetooth™ frequency bands and/or Bluetooth™ protocols and WiFi™ frequency bands and/or WiFi™ protocols, too.

Furthermore, said system 14 comprises an evaluation unit 30 designed and config ured for evaluating said responding signals 22, 24, 26, 28 in order to detect the pres ence of said living being in said interior 6, whereat said evaluation unit 30 is linked to said transmission unit 16 and said receiving units 18 in a signal transmitting manner, and at least one actuator, whereat said actuator is designed and configured to be trig gered according to said detection of said presence of said living being. Said actuator is not displayed in Fig. 1. Said evaluation unit 30 is designed and configured to pro cess said responding signals 22, 24, 26, 28 according to the following:

Said responding signals 22, 24, 26, 28 triggered by said at least one transmission sig nal 20 depend on said living being to be detected as well as on the properties of so- called communication channels, thus areas between said transmission unit 16 and said living being on one side and between said living being and said receiving units 16, 18 on the other side. These communication channels mainly depend on the prop erties of a medium between antennas of said at least one transmission unit 16 and said receiving units 16, 18 including the direct path and reflected multipaths due to liv ing beings and/or nonliving objects, which is dynamic and directly dependent on the geometry, positioning and materials of said medium in between said aforementioned antennas of said transmission unit 16 and said receiving units 16, 18. Said evaluated responding signals 22, 24, 26, 28 will be reflected from everything in between. In case of living beings, said responding signals 22, 24, 26, 28 will be often a combination of multipath signals that reflect not just from the living beings. Said responding signals 22, 24, 26, 28 are therefore a combination of several reflections. Also, one may think of a technique where before a living being is entering said vehicle 30, said responding signals 22, 24, 26, 28 depending on said communication channels are also being eval uated. During and after entering of said living being, the properties of said communica tion channels will be different and therefore this change will be detectable. Thus, said evaluation of said responding signals 22, 24, 26, 28 in said evaluation unit 30 will yield different results depending on whether or not at least one living being is in said surveil lance area of said interior 6 of said vehicle 2. That way, a presence of said at least one living being in said surveillance area of said interior 6 of said vehicle 2 can be de tected.

Said antennas of said transmitting unit 16 and of said receiving units 18 are not dis played in Fig. 1 .

In the following, the function of the inventive system and the method according to the invention are explained in detail by means of the embodiment displayed by Fig. 1 .

Said driver of said vehicle 2 enters said cabin 4 of said vehicle 2 and sits down on said driver’s seat 8 of said vehicle 2. Said driver starts an engine of said vehicle 2 and drives away. Said engine is not displayed in Fig. 1 . Meanwhile, said system 14 of said vehicle 2 processes the method according to the invention for detecting a presence of at least one living being inside said cabin 4 of said vehicle 2 by means of radio sig nals, namely by using WiFi™ frequency bands and/or WiFi™ protocols, comprising the following steps: Transmitting said transmission signal 20 from said transmission unit 16 positioned at said transmission unit position inside said cabin 4 towards said surveillance area of said interior 6 of said cabin 4 and receiving responding signals 22, 24, 26, 28 from said surveillance area caused by said reflection of said transmission signal 20 in said surveillance area of said interior 6, for example, said driver sitting on said driver’s seat 8 with said receiving units 18, each positioned at said receiving unit position inside said cabin 4, and said transmitting unit 16, which is designed and con figured as a receiving unit, too. Thus, said surveillance area of said system 14 covers at least a place of said driver’s seat 8 of said vehicle 2. Preferably, said surveillance area covers not only said place of said driver’s seat 8 but a front-seat passenger place of a front-seat passenger or all places of passengers, too. Because of all of said re ceiving unit positions and said transmission unit position are placed apart from each other and said responding signals 22, 24, 26, 28 are being received by anyone of said receiving units 16, 18, all of said responding signals 22, 24, 26, 28 received by said re ceiving units 16, 18 are different to each other due to the aforementioned conditions of said communication channels.

After said responding signals 22, 24, 26, 28 were received by said receiving units 16, 18, said responding signals 22, 24, 26, 28 are evaluated by means of said evaluation unit 30, whereat said evaluation unit 30 is linked to said transmission unit 16 and said receiving units 18 in a signal transmitting manner, which is state of the art and not fur ther explained. Said evaluation of said responding signals 22, 24, 26, 28 is processed according to said aforementioned conditions of said communication channels. Hereby, an already existing transmitting unit and already existing receiving units of said vehicle 2 can be used for the function of the inventive method. Thus, no extra transmitting unit 16 and/or receiving units 18 are necessary for implementing the inventive method. Be cause of the fact, that said driver is sitting on said driver’s seat 8 of said vehicle 2, the presence of said driver in said interior 6 according to said evaluation of said respond ing signals 22, 24, 26, 28 in said evaluation unit 30 is detected. According to said de tected presence of said driver in said surveillance area of said interior 6 of said cabin 4 of said vehicle 2, an action of said actuator of said vehicle 2 is triggered. For example, said action can be designed and configured as a visual and/or acoustic alert informing said driver to fasten his or her seat belt. Of course, other actuators and other functions of said vehicle 2 can be triggered by said aforementioned detected presence of said driver, too.

Because of the inventive method and the inventive system for processing the inventive method according to the aforementioned embodiment, a presence of at least one liv ing being inside said cabin 4 of said vehicle 2 can be detected with less cost and by keeping the privacy of living beings detected without further actions. Said triggered ac tion of at least one actuator of said vehicle according to said detection of said pres ence of said living being could be of any useful and suitable manner. For example, displaying an alert to said driver to make sure, that every occupant of said vehicle has fasten his or her seatbelt. Thus, said detection of a presence of at least one living be ing inside said cabin 4 of said vehicle 2 means a detection of an occupancy of at least one space in said interior 6 of said cabin 4 by at least one living being inside said cabin 4 of said vehicle 2. That means, with the invention according to the embodiment not only a pure presence of at least one living being inside said cabin 4 is being de tected, but an occupancy of a certain space inside said cabin 4 of said vehicle 2 is be ing detected, too. Of course, other systems of said vehicle can be triggered, too.

The invention is not limited to the exemplary embodiment of the inventive method and the inventive system discussed before.

The invention can be advantageously used in other types of vehicles, too.

According to a further embodiment of the inventive method, said evaluation of said re sponding signals is configured to detect a vital sign of said driver, preferably of all of said living beings detected, whereat said action of said actuator is being triggered ac cording to said detection of said vital sign. Hereby, the safety of said vehicle and of other traffic participants is enhanced. For example, in case of a negative vital sign of said driver of said vehicle an alert can be transmitted to an outside of said vehicle in order to alert other traffic participants that a dangerous situation may occur.

Another embodiment of the method according to the invention is, that said evaluation of said responding signals is configured to detect a gesture of said driver, preferably of all of said living beings detected, whereat said action of said actuator is being trig gered according to said detection of said gesture. That way an alertness of said driver can be recognized. If an alertness of said driver is detected to be not sufficient for driv ing said vehicle, a visual and/or acoustic alert can be given to said driver by using a common human machine interface of said vehicle. Furthermore, it is possible to con trol certain functions of said vehicle by doing specific gestures.

Moreover, an inventive computer program product may comprise instructions which, when the program is executed by the system according to the invention, carries out the method according to the invention. A computer-readable data carrier according to the invention may store thereon the aforementioned computer program product.

List of reference numbers

2 Vehicle

4 Cabin of said vehicle 2 6 Interior of said cabin 4 8 Driver’s seat

10 Front passenger seat

12 Rear passenger seat

14 System

16 Transmission unit

18 Receiving unit

20 Transmission signal 22 Responding signal

24 Responding signal

26 Responding signal

28 Responding signal

30 Evaluation unit