Vehicle seat

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9814859-B2
Application number	US-201615209856-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 14, 2016
Priority date	Jul 30, 2015
Publication date	Nov 14, 2017
Grant date	Nov 14, 2017

Abstract

A vehicle seat includes: plural airbags for massaging that are provided at least at an interior of a seatback, and that inflate to push against portions of a body of a seated vehicle occupant; an air supplying/discharging device that has a forced-air source that feeds air under pressure, and a control valve that supplies and discharges the air, that has been fed under pressure from the forced-air source, to the plural airbags respectively, so that the air supplying/discharging device inflates and contracts the plural airbags individually; and an electronic control unit that, in a state in which the forced-air source is operated, repeats, at a uniform cycle, supplying and discharging of the air by switching of the control valve, to generate awakening vibrations at least at one airbag among the plural airbags.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A vehicle seat comprising:
a plurality of airbags for massaging that are provided at least at an interior of a seatback, and that inflate to push against portions of a body of a seated vehicle occupant when the occupant is seated in the vehicle seat;
an air supplying/discharging device that has a forced-air source that includes a pump and that feeds air under pressure, and a control valve that supplies and discharges the air, that has been fed under pressure from the forced-air source, to the plurality of airbags respectively, so that the air supplying/discharging device inflates and contracts the plurality of airbags individually; and
an electronic control unit that, in a state in which the forced-air source is operated, repeats, at a uniform cycle, supplying and discharging of the air by switching of the control valve, to generate awakening vibrations at least at one airbag among the plurality of airbags, wherein
to generate the awakening vibrations, the electronic control unit controls the pump to supply the air continuously to the control valve while controlling the control valve to alternately supply the air to and discharge the air from the at least one airbag.

2. The vehicle seat of claim 1 , wherein the electronic control unit generates the awakening vibrations at the at least one airbag when it is detected that the seated vehicle occupant is tending toward falling asleep.

3. The vehicle seat of claim 1 , wherein the electronic control unit generates the awakening vibrations at the at least one airbag at a time of an automatic driving mode of a self-driving vehicle, when it is detected that the seated vehicle occupant is tending toward falling asleep or is in a state of falling asleep.

4. The vehicle seat of claim 1 , wherein the electronic control unit vibrates the plurality of airbags with the awakening vibrations at a predetermined timing and in a predetermined order.

5. The vehicle seat of claim 1 , wherein the electronic control unit vibrates the plurality of airbags with the awakening vibrations at a predetermined timing and in a random order.

6. The vehicle seat of claim 1 , wherein the electronic control unit controls the control valve to supply and discharge the air to/from the at least one airbag to generate the awakening vibrations at a first frequency that is higher than a second frequency at which the electronic control unit controls the control valve to supply and discharge the air to/from the at least one airbag to generate massaging vibrations.

7. The vehicle seat of claim 1 , wherein the electronic control unit controls the control valve to maintain the at least one airbag in an inflated state while generating the awakening vibrations for a first time period that is shorter than a second time period at which the electronic control unit controls the control valve to maintain the at least one airbag in the inflated state while generating massaging vibrations.

8. The vehicle seat of claim 1 , wherein
to generate the massaging vibrations, the electronic control unit controls the pump to supply the air to the control valve while controlling the control valve to supply the air to the at least one airbag, but controls the pump to stop the supply of the air to the control valve while controlling the control valve to discharge the air from the at least one airbag.

9. A vehicle seat comprising:
a plurality of airbags for massaging that are provided at least at an interior of a seatback, and that inflate to push against portions of a body of a seated vehicle occupant when the occupant is seated in the vehicle seat;
an air supplying/discharging device that has a forced-air source that feeds air under pressure, and a control valve that supplies and discharges the air, that has been fed under pressure from the forced-air source, to the plurality of airbags respectively, so that the air supplying/discharging device inflates and contracts the plurality of airbags individually; and
an electronic control unit that, in a state in which the forced-air source is operated, repeats, at a uniform cycle, supplying and discharging of the air by switching of the control valve, to generate awakening vibrations at least at one airbag among the plurality of airbags, wherein
the electronic control unit controls the control valve to supply and discharge the air to/from the at least one airbag to generate the awakening vibrations at a first frequency that is higher than a second frequency at which the electronic control unit controls the control valve to supply and discharge the air to/from the at least one airbag to generate massaging vibrations.

Assignees

• Toyota Motor Co Ltd

Inventors

• Onuma Masahiko
• Saitou Kouji

Classifications

• B60N2/976

  massaging systems · CPC title

• B60W2040/0827

  due to sleepiness · CPC title

• A61H2201/0149

  Seat or chair · CPC title

• A61H2205/108

  for the upper legs · CPC title

• A61H2201/503

  Inertia activation, i.e. activated by movement · CPC title