In an acceleration pick-up (11), in particular for tripping occupant protection devices in motor vehicles in the event of an accident, an optical method is used to convert the acceleration occurring into an electrically evaluable signal. In this case, a ball (24) or cylinder which serves as a seismic mass and as an imaging optical system is arranged in a housing interior (21) and is deflected from its position of rest upon the occurrence of an acceleration or of tilting of the vehicle. This deflection causes a stroke movement of the centre of gravity of the mass, and thereby changes the optical imaging characteristics. The acceleration pick-up (11) is particularly simple and robust in design and has in particular high sensitivity and variable rate of response. <IMAGE>
