PROCEDURE AND SYSTEM FOR DETECTING COLLISIONS AND CONTROLLING SAFETY DEVICES

A method of detecting collisions and controlling safety devices utilizing a capacitive deceleration sensor and a circuit which forms the sensor output signal as well as an analog/numerical converter, a calculator and an actuator controlled by a numerical calculator. The numerical calculator processes the numerical signal which represents the deceleration output from the converter and calculates a weighted acceleration, a mean value for the weighted acceleration, and an algorithm equal to the sum of the mean value and a variable correcting term. This process triggers the actuator when the algorithm exceeds a predetermined threshold.