Automotive Seating Analysis Using Thin, Flexible Tactile Sensor Arrays 930112

The recent development of large area, flexible tactile sensors has made it possible to examine the pressure distribution that results when a passenger comes in contact with a car seat. These thin (0.1 mm thick) sensing grids contain over 2000 sensing cells which can be scanned at up to 100Hz with an 8 bit resolution. The system, consisting of the sensors, an interface handle, a half-length PC bus expansion card and a laptop computer, allows data to be collected in a vehicle without modifications to the seat. The system software allows the pressure distribution patterns to be viewed in real-time or recorded in a multi-frame movie format. Using this system, the difference between various seating types can be examined and quantified. In addition, the effect on pressure distribution caused by various common driver actions (actuating the accelerator, depressing the clutch, etc.) can be viewed and compared in several graphic formats.