Vehicle Interior Monitoring by Radar - Insights and collaborations

July 22, 2025

Vehicle Interior Monitoring – Parameter Insights

Heart Rate

  • Doppler Radar, UWB Radar and MM-wave radar were mainly used for Heart Rate Monitoring Purpose.
  • 19 patent families describes the use of Heart Rate for Abnormality detection purpose (using Radar) from which 9 patent families are taking priority from KR.

Breath Rate

  • NOVELIC is the top assignee with 4 patent families.
  • 6 patent families use monitoring of breath rate using Radar for Occupant Classification purpose.
  • Unsafe/Abnormal conditions are also detected using breath rate monitoring using Radar in 16 patent families.
  • 23 patent families are taking priority from US discloses monitoring of breath rate using Radar.

Eye/Retina/Stare/Gaze

  • Out of 40 patent families in this category, 25 patent families describes Driver's eye/Gaze direction detection using Radar
  • STATE FARM is the top assignee in this category, holding 9 patent families.
  • 24 patent families are taking priority from US describes Eye/Retina/Stare/ Gaze direction detection using Radar.

Gesture/Posture and Attention

  • Most of the patent families in this category discloses Driver monitoring using Radar.
  • PORSCHE and STATE FARM are the top 2 assignee in this category with 12 and 9 patent families respectively.
  • 27 and 26 patent families are taking priority from US and DE in this category.

Biological parameters also includes anxiety, drowsiness, head position, facial expression, fatigue, skeleton, height, weight etc.

Vehicle Interior Monitoring – Radar Type

Top Assignee

Toyota has one patent family in collaboration with University of Electro-Communications.

Doppler Radar

  • Most of the patent families (i.e., 62) using Doppler type radar for vehicle interior monitoring.
  • By using only Doppler radar, PORSCHE owns patent application DE102016219517B4, DE102016204274A1, DE102016000769A1 that perform Occupancy/ Occupant/ Object Detection Confirmation, Occupant/Seat Position Detection and Vehicle Parts Monitoring.

Ultrasonic Radar

  • TOYOTA and LS AUTOMOTIVE is the major assignee in this category both holding 4 patent families individually.
  • This Category includes patent families related to Child Classification (4 patent families), Adult Classification (1 patent family), and Animal Classification (2 patent families).
  • Out of 40 patent families, 26 disclose Intrusion Detection, 14 disclose Occupant/Object Detection.

UWB Radar

  • Out of 23 using UWB radar, 7 patent families perform Occupant/Seat Position Detection.
  • A patent application assigned to RESMED in 2019 (i.e. WO2019122414A1) discloses occupant detection by detecting breathing movement, the occupant movements, sleep related characteristics, respiratory characteristics, cardiac characteristics, seat position by using UWB radar.

mm-wave Radar

  • NOVELIC holds most of the patent families which uses mm-wave sensor for Intrusion Detection/Occupant Authentication and Occupancy/ Occupant/ Object Detection by measuring breath and heart rate.
  • A china based university XICHANG owns patent application claiming the use of mm wave radar inside the vehicle for monitoring the cardiopulmonary activity of the infant left in the car.

Vehicle Interior Monitoring – China Specific Insights

University Distribution

UNIV TONGJI

  • A China-based university located in Shanghai, has 3 patent families in vehicle interior monitoring by radar.
  • 2 patent families disclose HUD eye movement based on radar installed in the car.

UNIV BEIJING POSTS TELECOMM

  • A China-based university, has 2 patent families in vehicle interior monitoring by radar.
  • Both patent families disclose an ultra wideband (UWB) radar for vehicle interior monitoring.

UNIV HANGZHOU DIANZI

  • A Chinese university, has 2 patent families in vehicle interior monitoring by radar.
  • Both the patent families disclose a vehicular fatigue driving monitoring system for detecting physiological signal changes of a driver by using a Doppler radar.

UNIV JILIN

  • A China based university, has 2 patent families in vehicle interior monitoring by radar.
  • Both the patent families disclose an Intelligent drunk driving preventing system and method.

New Entrants

SENSI TAIKE and SHENZHEN PUJIELI TECHNOLOGY are two new entrants which have filed their patents on vehicle interior monitoring using radar in 2019.

Chinese Patent Distribution

  • Granted Utility Model: 18
  • Granted Patents: 30
  • Applications: 159
  • Total: 207

Vehicle Interior Monitoring - New Entrants

FREEDMAN SEATING

  • A US based firm, was granted a patent US10457208B1 in the year 2019, disclosing a system for detecting whether passengers are seated and secured in their seat using radar.

GENTHERM

  • A US-based company, filed a WIPO application WO2019147684A1 in the year 2019, disclosing system for detecting occupant's heart rate using radar.

SENSI TAIKE

  • A China-based company, filed a patent application CN109774641A in the year 2019, disclosing vehicle-mounted radars and provides a method for occupancy detection in a vehicle.

SHENZHEN PUJIELI TECHNOLOGY

  • A China-based company, has a patent application CN110450784A filed in the year 2019 disclosing driver status based on FMCW radar.

VAYYAR IMAGING

  • An Israel based company, has a patent application WO2019162898A1 filed in the year 2019, disclosing MIMO radar apparatus for tracking temporal patterns of respiratory and cardiac activities within non-stationary environments like vehicle.

Vehicle Interior Monitoring - Collaborations

HONEYWELL

  • HONEYWELL filed a patent in collaboration with SIEMENS, has patent family originating from US and have family coverage in US, EP, WO, JP, KR, BR.
  • JP2001504770A discloses a method of occupant sensing system for a motor vehicle that determine the presence and location of an occupant using radar.

ROBERT BOSCH

  • ROBERT BOSCH has one patent family in collaboration with MORTON INTERNATIONAL.
  • The patent family discloses an improved air bag system that utilizes inputs to identify occupant presence and occupant position to optimize the system's performance.

TOYOTA

  • A patent family is assigned to TOYOTA in collaboration with UNIVERSITY OF ELECTRO-COMMUNICATION discloses a vehicle interior situation observation device (system) for observing passenger movement in a vehicle interior using Radar in a one-man bus.

IEE SARL

  • IEE SARL has a patent family in collaboration with AEROSPACE HI TECH. The patent family discloses an improved radar sensor for occupancy detection.

FAURECIA

  • A patent family owned by FAURECIA in collaboration with PSA discloses an occupant support system for the vehicle seat for detecting and processing physiological parameters from a vehicle seat sensor (Radar) system to determine heart rate, heart rate variability, stress level, a pulse-transit time and blood pressure of the occupant.

HYUNDAI MOTOR

  • KR20190079060A filed in 2017 by HYUNDAI MOTOR in collaboration with LS AUTOMOTIVE discloses a method and system to detect a passenger of a vehicle using radar.

Vehicle Interior Monitoring - Technology Transfer

US7772967B2

  • The patent reference discloses detection of occupant in the vehicle using radar sensor.

US2018326999A1

  • The patent reference discloses a systems for monitoring a child within the seat of the vehicle using Radar.

US6847302B2

  • This publication reference discloses a method and system for vehicle occupant monitoring using Radar.

US6930614B2

  • The patent reference discloses vehicle security system and the vehicle intrusion detection system where an intrusion sensor (radar) for detecting intrusion into the vehicle.

Top Assignee

Bibliographic Trends

Explore Part 1: Vehicle Interior Monitoring by Radar: Overview

Explore Part 2: Global Trends and Key Players in Vehicle Interior Monitoring

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