US 4,655,505 · Granted 1987-04-07
The Smart Pneumatic Seat That Adjusts to Your Body and the Road
Imagine a car seat filled with tiny air bags that automatically inflate and deflate to cradle your body just right. This patent covers a system where sensors measure air pressure and valves pump air into different sections of the seat based on how fast the car is accelerating or what position you're sitting in — kind of like the seat is giving you a customized hug.
The plain-English version
What it protects
The claim covers a pneumatic vehicle seat system with multiple embedded air bags controlled by electronic valves and a pressure sensor. What's protected here is the specific architecture: a single air line branching to multiple bags, individual on-off valves for each bag, a pressure sensor feeding data to a control system, and an exhaust valve that lets air escape. The control means stores preset pressure values and automatically opens and closes valves to match those targets. Someone making an unauthorized copy would need to avoid this exact combination of components and control logic.
Why it matters
This patent represents an early step toward adaptive automotive seating — technology that now appears in luxury vehicles worldwide. By automating pressure distribution based on driving conditions and body position, it improves both comfort and safety (reducing fatigue and distributing force evenly during acceleration). The simplified control structure described here was genuinely innovative for 1987, using a single sensor and branching conduits instead of independent systems for each air bag, making the technology cheaper and more reliable to manufacture at scale.
Real-world use
When you sit in a high-end car seat that seems to hug you differently depending on how fast the car is going, you're experiencing an evolution of the technology locked in this patent.
Original USPTO abstract
Disclosed is a seat for vehicle which is pneumatically controlled for a desired body pressure distribution of a person seated in the seat, comprising: a plurality of air bags embedded in a seat; an air pressure source; a single first conduit connected the air pressure source at its one end and branched off into a plurality of second conduits leading to the air bags at its other end; a plurality of on-off valves each provided in the corresponding one of the second conduits leading to the air bags; an exhaust valve connected to the first conduit at its one end and to the atmosphere at its other end; a single pressure sensor provided in the first conduit; and control means connected to the air pressure source, the on-off valves, the exhaust valve and the pressure sensor; the control means comprising means for storing predetermined air pressure values for the air bags, means for selectively opening and closing the on-off valves and the exhaust valve, and means for preventing the valve opening and closing means for opening the valves according to the result of comparison between the output from the pressure sensor and predetermined air pressure values. Thus, the structure for air pressure control is simplified and the body pressure distribution of the passenger may be adapted to the acceleration of the vehicle and other conditions.
Patent details
- Publication number
- US 4,655,505
- Filing date
- 1985-11-18
- Grant date
- 1987-04-07
- Assignee
- Nhk Spring Co., Ltd.
- Inventor(s)
- KASHIWAMURA; TAKAYOSHI, IWASAKI; RYOICHI
- CPC class
- B60N2/976
Want to file your own patent?
Before you design your own comfort innovation for furniture or vehicles, check our free patentability scanner to see what's already locked down in the seat and cushion space.
Free patentability scan