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1. A capacitive occupant sensing apparatus for identifying whether an occupant who is present on a seat of a vehicle is an adult or a child, comprising:
a sensor unit that is installed to a seat base of the seat; and a control unit that is electrically connected to the sensor unit, wherein: the sensor unit includes a first sensing electrode and a second sensing electrode; the control unit includes:
a signal application circuit that is adapted to apply an oscillation signal, which oscillates over time, to the first sensing electrode and is also adapted to apply an oscillation signal, which oscillates over time, to the second sensing electrode;a signal sensing circuit that senses a value of an electric current, which is supplied to the first sensing electrode at time of applying the oscillation signal from the signal application circuit to the first sensing electrode, and a value of an electric current, which is supplied to the second sensing electrode at time of applying the oscillation signal from the signal application circuit to the second sensing electrode; anda control circuit that receives the values of the electric currents, which are supplied to the first sensing electrode and the second sensing electrode, respectively, and are sensed with the signal sensing circuit, wherein the control circuit identifies whether the occupant on the seat is the adult or the child based on the values of the electric currents; the first sensing electrode is configured such that a hip breadth of a one year old infant dummy entirely covers a left-to-right directional length of the first sensing electrode, which is measured in a left-to-right direction of the seat, from a top side of the first sensing electrode in a state where the one year old infant dummy is present on a child-restraint system installed to the seat base in a normal upright seating position of the one year old infant dummy, in which the one year old infant dummy is centered about a center location of the first sensing electrode in the left-to-right direction of the seat; the second sensing electrode includes a right section and a left section located on a right side and a left side, respectively, of the first sensing electrode in the left-to-right direction of the seat; the right section and the left section of the second sensing electrode are configured such that the one year old infant dummy does not cover any portion of the right section and the left section of the second sensing electrode in the state where the one year old infant dummy is present on the child-restraint system installed to the seat base in the normal upright seating position of the one year old infant dummy, in which the one year old infant dummy is centered about the center location of the first sensing electrode in the left-to-right direction of the seat; the right section and the left section of the second sensing electrode are also configured such that an adult dummy covers at least a portion of the right section and at least a portion of the left section of the second sensing electrode from a top side of the second sensing electrode in a state where the adult dummy is present on the seat base in a normal upright seating position of the adult dummy, in which the adult dummy is centered about the center location of the first sensing electrode in the left-to-right direction of the seat; the one year old infant dummy is a CRABI 12-Month-Old Child, and the adult dummy is a Hybrid-III Female 5th percentile; and the control circuit identifies whether the occupant on the seat is the adult or the child based on:
a first capacitance between the first sensing electrode and a ground, wherein the first capacitance is computed based on the value of the electric current, which is supplied to the first sensing electrode at the time of applying the oscillation signal from the signal application circuit to the first sensing electrode, in view of a sensed result of the signal sensing circuit; anda second capacitance between the second sensing electrode and the ground, wherein the second capacitance is computed based on the value of the electric current, which is supplied to the second sensing electrode at the time of applying the oscillation signal from the signal application circuit to the second sensing electrode, in view of the sensed result of the signal sensing circuit.
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