Steering Wheel Unit

Abstract: Since there is necessarily a dead zone where a sensor cannot be placed due to appearance and design restrictions of a steering wheel unit, the purpose of the present invention is to provide a steering wheel unit capable of determining whether there is contact of a hand of an operator even in a dead zone where there is no sensor. In this steering wheel unit, if an electrostatic capacitance measured by a capacitance measurement unit is at least a first threshold when set in a self-capacitance detection mode by a mode switching unit, it is determined that a hand of an operator is contacting a position, on a rim, that overlaps at least one of a plurality of electrodes. If the electrostatic capacitance is at least a second threshold, which is lower than the first threshold, and is less than the first threshold, the mode is switched from the self-capacitance detection mode to a mutual-capacitance detection mode. Thereafter, if the electrostatic capacitance measured by the capacitance measurement unit in the mutual-capacitance detection mode is at least a third threshold, it is determined that a hand of the operator is contacting a position, on the rim, that overlaps with a gap between the plurality of electrodes.

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