Eaton Corporation: Technology Development

Eaton Corporation is a tier one global automotive parts supplier ranking 213 on the Fortune 500. Eaton has invented a new vision-based concept for a smart airbag system. The system detects the presence of a small child or an infant car seat on the front passenger seat and deactivates the passenger side airbag.

Challenge: To Develop Occupant Type Detection

Passenger Type Classification
Techlogix has developed the occupant type determination software for this system. According to the US National Highway Transportation Safety Administration more than 50 small children seated in the front passenger seat have been killed by airbag deployment in minor accidents over the last few years. The smart airbag system developed by Eaton and Techlogix has been designed to prevent such injuries.

Stereo Vision Algorithms
Techlogix developed algorithms based on decision trees and neural nets that determine whether the passenger of a vehicle is an adult, a front facing child seat, or a rear facing infant seat. The algorithms are optimized to work well under a wide range of lighting conditions.

Patent Award

Techlogix and Eaton Corp were jointly awarded US Patent 6,459,974 for their work.