Automatic Door Locks

[Kenan.Clay]

I am doing a Senior Research Project and I am trying to help prevent children’s deaths in vehicles from overheating. My idea was to have a sensor in the child's car seat with a timer that would, after a certain period of time, unlock the car's doors and set the vehicles alarm off. I am also considering adding a device that would send out a signal to nearby authorities or paramedics but am unsure as to whether this would be able to be done. Would this be a complicated task to set up or would it be simple enough to wire the sensor and timer into the car's system to perform this? Any input would be helpful.

[Moppie]

Very easy, you could simply wire it into one of the existing systems that use GPS to track stolen cars.

A sensor in the seat to tell if its occupied, and another sensor in the car for the heat.
Set up a small circut so that if the seat is occupied, and the car is to hot, the alarm is activated, and the central locking unlocks the doors.


Couple of problems though, the sort of people who leave children un-attneded in car parks don't usualy have the sort of incomed needed, or the thought to install such a system.
No car manufactor is going to fit as standard to new cars because of the increase in cost, vs the small benifit to a small number of people.

[mazdatech177]

how bout we just kill the retards that leave their kids in a closed vehicle in the summertime?

[UncleBob]

hmmm....could just have the car start and have the AC turn on

[GreyGoose006]

what if there is a heavy box in the back seat...

edit:
sorry didnt notice that it was part of the car seat.

sounds like a plan, but it would be a very expensive car seat, and the truth is, as moppie said, people who would most likely do it are the ones who cant afford it.

there would need to be some kind of way to tell if the car was running as well.

[corning_d3]

I like the idea. Keep going with this..

[curtis73]

How about an IR sensor that picks up heat signatures in the back seat. That would let the vehicle know if a kid or a pet were there. I think that has been used before in high-end luxury cars as part of the auto-climate control.

That might be more reliable than a switch in the seat.

[UncleBob]

most front passenger airbag systems have multiple sensors to gauge the weight and size of the person in the seat and deactivate the air bag if they are too small. The technology is readily availible as far as sensing if a child is in a seat