| 摘要 |
<p>The present invention provides an improved buckle for a vehicle safety restraint from which more accurate and reliable information on seat belt usage can be obtained. The buckle comprises a buckle head with a passageway (3) for receiving a buckle tongue (2), and releasable means for locking the tongue (2) in the passageway (3). A tag (12) such as a coded magnetic strip or a microchip is provided encapsulated in the material of the tongue (2) and a detector (13) is provided in the buckle head in close proximity to the tongue (2) passageway (3). The detector (13) is chosen to be suitable to read the tag (12), e.g. a bar code tag and optical bar code reader as a detector. The code may be arranged to uniquely identify each tongue (2) in a particular vehicle or be programmable by the sensor at the vehicle manufacturer. Each detector (13) in the buckle heads may be programmed to recognise its corresponding correct tongue and warning signals may be provided if the wrong tongue, or a different object is inserted into a particular buckle. The tags are preferably encapsulated to prevent damage during normal buckle usage.</p> |
