Microcontroller-Based Seat Occupancy Detection and Classification

Abstract

This paper presents a microcontroller-based measurement system to detect and confirm the presence of a subject in a chair. The system relies on a single Force Sensing Resistor (FSR), which may be arranged in the seat or backrest of the chair, that undergoes a sudden resistance change when a subject/object is seated/placed over the chair. In order to distinguish between a subject and an inanimate object, the system also monitors small-signal variations of the FSR resistance caused by respiration. These resistance variations are then directly measured by a low-cost general-purpose microcontroller without using either an analogue processing stage or an analogue-to-digital converter, thus resulting in a low-cost, low-power, compact design solution.

Seat Occupancy Detection Based on a Low-Power Microcontroller and a Single FSR

“…This paper, which continues and expands the work presented in [11], proposes a novel measurement method for seat occupancy detection and classification using a single FSR. The additional information usually required for the subject-object classification is extracted from the FSR itself, which is exploited to monitor the respiratory signal similarly to the applications described in the previous paragraph.…”

Buck Converter for Low-Power PV Modules: A Comparative Study

“…Using [8] as a reference, this work aims to evaluate the efficiency of a burst-mode buck dc/dc converter when regulating the operating point of two low-power PV modules of different technology (monocrystalline and amorphous). Table 1 summarizes the features of the two commercial low-power PV modules under test (from now on: PV-1 and PV-2), which provide a power of tens of mW suitable to supply microcontrollerbased sensor nodes [9][10][11]. These modules were subjected, through a LED array, to three irradiance levels identified as I33, I66, and I100 that correspond to 330, 660, and 1000 W/m 2 , respectively, in terms of power generated at the MPP.…”