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SeatSentry Offers Most Advanced Step in Children's Automobile Safety

3 March 1999

SeatSentry Offers Most Advanced Step in Children's Automobile Safety

    DETROIT, March 2 -- NEC Automotive Electronics is offering
the first and only technology designed to eliminate the risk of a child being
killed or injured by a side airbag.
    NEC's "electric field sensing" technology is the only system capable of
detecting the presence of a child, determining its height and preventing
deployment of a side airbag when the child is too close.  This technology goes
one step further than proposed systems of other manufacturers, which may use
sensors to determine weight of an object in the front seat.
    The SeatSentry(TM) occupant sensing system for side airbags is now
standard equipment in the 1999 Acura 3.5 RL.  The technology is grounded in
studies finding that a child's risk for injury is not caused simply from a
child's presence in the front seat, but rather, how close the child is to the
airbag when it deploys.
    "NHTSA has set the goal of eliminating side airbags as a cause of harm to
children, and SeatSentry is the only system that does it," said Phil
Rittmueller, vice president of NEC Automotive Electronics.
    The car industry, child safety seat manufacturers and safety experts warn
parents against placing infants or small children in the front seat,
especially with side airbags.  NEC's technology was developed in recognition
that some parents do not heed this advice, or owners of a two-seater sports
car or pick-up truck find themselves with no other choice.  Additionally, when
some children are in the front seat, they are sometimes not seatbelted or move
out of a safe position by moving or resting their head against the door.
    The SeatSentry occupant sensing system for side airbags is based on
technology developed at and licensed from the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology.  NEC engineers worked in Japan to adapt this technology
specifically to reduce the injuries to children which may result from a
deploying side airbag.

    Electric Field Sensing
    A very low-level electric field is generated from antennas mounted in the
seat's back cushion.  When a body enters the field, the displacement current
changes, thus allowing detection.  By analyzing the change of the current at
each antenna and combining this information, the seating height of the
passenger and proximity to the side airbag can be determined.
    In the NEC SeatSentry occupant system, six flexible antennas tell the
occupant's size.  An additional sensor on the seat bolster determines if a
child's proximity to the airbag is too close.  For example, if a child rests
her head against the seat while taking a nap, SeatSentry sensors will then
prevent the airbag from deploying.  The safety of electric field sensing
speaks for itself:  the strength of the system is less than that in
fluorescent lights used in office buildings.
    Development is in process that will utilize this electric field sensing
for occupant classification and proximity to the front airbag.  These systems
are expected to meet NHTSA requirements currently in the propsal stage.
    NEC Technologies, Inc. (Automotive Electronics Division) is a leading
manufacturer of automotive safety products for the North American automotive
market.  NEC Technologies headquarters are in Itasca, Ill.  Its U.S.
manufacturing plant is in Hillsboro, Ore., and engineering and distribution is
in McDonough, Ga.