Patent 9721408 was granted and assigned to NISSAN MOTOR CO.,LTD. on August, 2017 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
A control apparatus for a vehicle opening/closing member that operates the opening/closing member provided in the vehicle in response to a physical expression of a user, having a user authentication unit that authenticates a user whose physical expression is to be detected, a physical expression detecting unit that detects the physical expression of the user, an operation determining unit that determines an operating state of at least one of the user authentication unit and the physical expression detecting unit, and a notification unit that sends notification that, in accordance with a determination result of the operating state determined by the operation determining unit, the user has been authenticated, the detection of the physical expression has been completed, or the detection of the physical expression has failed.