An Occupant Sensing System Using Single Video Camera and Ultra-sonic Sensor for Advanced Airbag

In this paper, we proposed an occupant detection system using single video camera and a distance sensor for an advanced airbag deployment. We detected occupant face using skin color and motion information in real time. The proposed method acquired the color and size of the occupant face using single video camera and calculated the distance information between the occupant and airbag using a distance sensor. The skin color is acquired by influence of surrounding illuminance. In case of night, we detected occupant face using luminance information in a camera image. And we used a distance sensor to calculate the threedimensional position information of occupant at day and night. We performed various experiment with camera and vehicle jig to evaluate performance of proposed occupant detection system for smart airbag. Our experiments showed that proposed occupant detection system is able to be put to practical use in smart airbag. And proposed face detection algorithm is more simple and faster than the previous algorithms.