Motor vehicle occupant detection system employing ellipse shape models and bayesian classification

摘要

A object on a seat of a motor vehicle is classified by creating a video image of the area and forming a silhouette of the object. The silhouette is divided into two segments and a separate ellipse is positioned to approximate the shape of each segment. The parameters that define the location and size of the two ellipses form a feature vector for the object. A Bayesian classification function utilizes the feature vector to determine the probability that the object fits which each of a plurality of classes. A class for the object is determined based on the probabilities. This method can be used to control operation of an air bag in the motor vehicle in response to the class of the object on the seat.