Characterizing a proximately located occupant body portion with a sensor matrix

摘要

An occupant sensor system (40) has an array (42) of sensors (48I-48IV). Each of the sensors (48I-48IV) senses the presence of a body portion of an occupant (14) proximately located to the respective sensor and provides a signal (50) indicative of the presence. A controller (30) processes information derived from the signals (50) to characterize the type of the body portion.