Abstract: A vibro-tactile cutaneous alert stimulation and massaging system for equipment such as a vehicle includes a pad; a heater element, and motorized vibrators in respective regions of the pad; a plurality of vibratory transducers for location relative to plural zones of the seat, each transducer being responsive to a transducer power signal; a microprocessor controller having program and variable memory and an input and output interface; an array of input elements connected to the input interface for signaling the microprocessor in response to operator input, the signaling including an intensity control value, a plurality of mode signals, and a plurality of region signals relating transducers to be enabled; and a driver circuit responsive to the output interface for producing the power signal separately for each of the transducers.

Abstract: A vehicle massaging system includes a seat pad and motorized vibrators in respective regions of the pad; and a controller for selectively activating the transducers. Each of the vibrators is in a cavity of a main cushion member, the cavity being closed by an outer cushion member that supports an occupant, a soft or resilient isolation device being interposed between the vibrator and the main cushion member for reduced coupling of vibrations to structure or other portions of the seat, but enhanced coupling to a target region of the outer cushion member for improved selectivity of particular regions of a user's body to be massaged, and in multiple seating installations, unwanted vibration of one seat is suppressed during activation of vibrators in an adjacent seat. The transducer is bonded to the outer cushion member or a reinforcing sheet that is laminated thereto, the isolation device contacting a bottom portion of the transducer. Alternatively, the isolation device can completely enclose the transducer.

Abstract: A massaging system includes a pad comprising with multiple zones sand vibratory transducers in the pad for vibrating the zones. Each transducer includes a motor and a mass element eccentrically coupled to the motor. The massaging system also includes a microcontroller having an input interface and an output interface, a program memory coupled to the microcontroller, and input elements coupled to the input interface for signaling the microcontroller in response to operator input. A motor driver coupled to the output interface and the vibratory transducers drives the vibratory transducers in response to the operator input, while firmware stored in the memory and executed by the microcontroller selectively operates the vibratory transducers in a tapping mode and a wave mode in response to the operator input.

Abstract: A vibro-tactile cutaneous alert stimulation and massaging system for equipment such as a vehicle includes a pad, a heater element, and motorized vibrators in respective regions of the pad; a plurality of vibratory transducers for location relative to plural zones of the seat; a microprocessor controller having program and variable memory and an input and output interface; an array of input elements connected to the input interface for signaling the microprocessor in response to operator input; and a driver circuit responsive to the output interface for producing the power signal separately for each of the transducers. The controller responds to the input elements to activate the transducers in: a massaging mode and an alert mode producing a predetermined sequence of vibro-tactile cutaneous alert stimulation cycles. Additional transducers can be spaced along a restraining seat belt for imparting directionally oriented stimuli warning of an impending collision.

Abstract: A massaging system includes a pad, a heater element, motorized vibrators in the pad, heater and motor drivers in the pad, a control wand removably connectable to the pad and having a microcontroller with RAM and ROM, a serial EEPROM, and a serial interface to a shift register in the pad for signaling pulse width modulation of the drivers. The ROM defines a master set of operating modes and variations thereof in response to operator input. The EEPROM has data for implementing and configuring a subset of the master modes. Also disclosed is a set-up method for writing data to the EEPROM using the serial interface when the wand is disconnected from the pad. The system can include an audio envelope detector having a dual-slope integrating ADC in the pad that is cycled by serial signals driving the shift register, a single comparator output of the ADC signaling the microcontroller.

Abstract: A computer controlled massaging system (10) includes a pad (14), a plurality of motorized vibrators (12) in respective regions (26, 28, 30, 32, 34) of the pad; a heater element (16, 18) in the pad; microprocessor controller (10); an array of input elements (50, 52, 54, 56, 58, 62, 64, 96) responsive to operator input for signaling an intensity control value at least one region signal relating motors to be activated, and a heat control input; and a plurality of motor drivers (118) and a heater driver (120) responsive to the controller. The motors can be variably driven using pulse width modulation, with duty cycle compensation for voltage drops resulting from added loads and with current limiting when, for example, the system is powered from an AC line using a low voltage transformer of limited capacity.