Vehicle interior identification and monitoring system

摘要

Method and apparatus for controlling a system in the vehicle based on one or more occupying items in which a portion of the passenger compartment in which the item is situated is irradiated, and reflected radiation from surfaces of the occupying item are received and processed in order to create one or more electronic signals characteristic of the occupying item based on the received radiation, each signal containing a pattern representative and characteristic of the occupying item and being categorized by utilizing pattern recognition system for recognizing and thus identifying the class of the occupying item. The pattern recognition system processing each signal into a categorization thereof based on data corresponding to patterns of received radiation stored within the pattern recognition system and associated with possible classes of occupying items of the vehicle. Thereafter, another system in the vehicle is affected based on the categorization of the signal(s).