A vehicle occupant discrimination apparatus is provided, which is capable
of precisely discriminating a vehicle occupant using load data detected
by a small number of load sensors for detecting a load applied to a
vehicle seat. In a vehicle occupant discrimination apparatus for
discriminating the kind of an occupant on a vehicle seat on the basis of
the load applied to the vehicle seat, the apparatus includes state
detecting means for detecting the occupant state on the vehicle seat,
load measuring means for measuring the load applied to the vehicle seat,
and discriminating means for discriminating the kind of the occupant on
the basis of a discrimination condition differing in accordance with the
result detected by the state detecting means and the result measured by
the load measuring means.