Vehicle Door Projection Sensor for Foot Detection
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Users of vehicle door opening/closing devices have difficulty recognizing the range of the electric field generated by electrostatic sensors, leading to challenges in easily opening or closing vehicle doors.
Innovation Solution
A vehicle door opening/closing device that projects a display on the road surface indicating the sensor position, allowing users to visually recognize and interact with it to open or close the door by placing their foot within a predetermined range, thereby facilitating easy operation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Extent of automation
If electrostatic sensors are used to detect user approach, then automatic door opening/closing is enabled, but user recognition of sensor position becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
A display device is introduced as an intermediary between the electrostatic sensor and the user. The display visually indicates the sensor detection range and position on the road surface, mediating the information transfer so users can understand where to place their feet for door operation without directly sensing the invisible electrostatic field.
Solution Approach 2:
The display creates a visual copy or representation of the invisible electrostatic sensor detection range. By projecting a visual indicator onto the road surface that mirrors the actual sensor coverage area, users can see and respond to the sensor position without needing to directly detect the electrostatic field itself.
2Device complexity
If electrostatic sensors operate without visual indication, then device complexity is reduced, but ease of operation deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The display serves as an intermediary that bridges the simple electrostatic sensor and the user interaction. It provides visual guidance without requiring the sensor system itself to become complex, maintaining sensor simplicity while dramatically improving ease of operation through intuitive visual feedback.
3Measurement precision
If foot placement detection is made more sensitive, then door opening accuracy improves, but false detection by small animals or objects increases
Solution Approach 1:
The sensor system is divided into multiple sensor portions arranged in specific patterns. By requiring detection across multiple segmented sensor areas rather than a single sensor, the system achieves precise foot detection while preventing false activation by small animals or objects that would not simultaneously trigger multiple sensor portions.
Solution Approach 2:
Different sensor portions are assigned different functions or sensitivity levels. The display visually represents these localized sensor zones, allowing the system to have high detection precision in the foot placement area while maintaining immunity to false detection from other objects through the specific spatial arrangement and quality differentiation of sensor portions.
Data Source
AI summary
In order to notify a user of a vehicle of a sensor position in an easily understandable manner to easily open and close a vehicle door by an operation performed by the user of the vehicle, a vehicle door opening/closing device includes: a road surface projection unit configured to project a display representing a position at which shape identification is performed, on a road surface around a vehicle; a shape identification unit configured to perform identification of a shape of an object in a predetermined road surface range including the display projected by the road surface projection unit; and a control unit configured to drive opening or closing of a vehicle door when the shape that is identified by the shape identification unit for the object in the predetermined road surface range represents a shape of a foot portion of a person.