Patent Application
20070153406
The present invention relates to an integrated mirror, and particularly to an integrated mirror that makes good rear and rear/side fields of vision of a vehicle such as a car.
Hitherto, when the driver of a car has wanted to know the situation behind the car, the driver has used a rear view mirror such as a room mirror disposed in the middle of the top part of a front window or a side mirror (door mirror or fender mirror) disposed on the left and right side parts of the vehicle body. The room mirror is mainly used to check the field of vision behind the car, and side mirrors and the like are used to check the field of vision to the rear/side of the car. In the disposition of rear view mirrors in the past, structurally the occurrence of a blind angle has been unavoidable, and rechecking of this blind angle part by the driver's own visual inspection has been necessary.
To overcome this, in the past, with the object of enlarging the rear/side field of vision of during driving and reducing the blind angle region, a mirror fitting called a so-called wide mirror, to be attached afterward as an accessory to the room mirror, has been proposed. With this wide mirror, it is possible to obtain simultaneously a wide field of vision including a part of the side in addition to the rear of the car.
Technology for enlarging the field of vision obtained with a rear view mirror is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Utility Model Registration No. 3017776. The rear view mirror (door mirror) disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Registration No. 3017776 has an additionally provided sub-mirror positioned inside the passenger compartment, and makes the field of vision wide and large by a combination of the door mirror and the sub-mirror.
With the conventional rear view mirrors mentioned above, the following problems have arisen.
A first problem is that of the forward blind spot increasing. A wide mirror attached to a room mirror, because it is normally larger than the room mirror, increases the blind angle in relation to the forward field of vision. With a combination of a door mirror and a sub-mirror according to Japanese Utility Model Registration No. 3017776, there was the problem that a glass region which is a glass region lower than eye height important when checking the road surface ahead and is between the front pillar and the door mirror is hidden by the sub-mirror.
A second problem is that adjustment of the rear field of vision is troublesome. When the sitting position of a driver riding in the car and/or the driver's seat position are changed, for the driver to obtain a good field of vision, it is necessary to adjust the room mirror and the left and right side mirrors or the like. This adjustment must be carried out three times. With the door mirror disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Registration No. 3017776 mentioned above, in addition to these three adjustments, it is necessary to consider angular adjustment of the left and right sub-mirrors inside the passenger compartment.
A third problem is that the number of checks of the rear and the rear/side of the car becomes large. At the time of a right turn or the time of a left turn at a junction, in an ordinary traffic situation, it has been necessary for the driver to move his line of sight at least twice and check the room mirror and one of left and right side mirrors. In relation to line of sight movement of the driver, for example, as in the left/up direction to the room mirror, or right/down direction to the right door mirror, it has included large movements of left-right movement and up-down movement. Particularly when it is necessary for the driver to grasp the surrounding situation in detail, such as at a junction, there is a wanting to reduce unnecessary line of sight movements as much as possible.
A fourth problem is that it is necessary for the images reflected in the different rear view mirrors to be combined by the recognition capability of the driver. In using rear view mirrors of the past, when to recognize the rear/side situation the driver constructs an image of it in his head, he has performed a cognition task of first remembering a rear image obtained with the room mirror and then looking at a side image in the side mirror while combining these. In the past, because the installation positions of the room mirror and the side mirror have been far apart, the task of performing spatial recognition on the basis of the images in the different mirrors has been one constituting a large burden.
In the issue of this invention, it solves the first through fourth problems described above, and seeks to lighten the load on a driver driving a car of the task of checking the situation behind, by, while preventing an increase in forward dead angle, lightening the respective adjustment burdens of multiple rear view mirrors, lightening the burden of line of sight movement with respect to each of multiple rear view mirrors, and lightening the burden of the recognition task of combining the respective reflected images of multiple rear view mirrors in the head.
An object of the invention is to achieve the issue described above and provide an integrated mirror for a car with which, when a driver driving the car performs checking of the vehicle situation to the rear or the rear/side of the car when making a change of course or the like, in line of sight movement and recognition of rear reflected images, it is possible to perform the recognition work with a lighter burden than with past vehicles.
According to the present invention, to achieve the above object, there is provided an integrated mirror comprising: an inside mirror part for reflecting an inside field of vision of behind a vehicle; an outside mirror part for reflecting an outside field of vision of behind the vehicle; and coupling means for coupling the inside mirror part and the outside mirror part so that their respective mirror faces are parallel.
In this integrated mirror, the inside mirror part and the outside mirror part are disposed in proximity to each other and coupled and integrally constructed with a coupling member so that their mirror faces have a parallel positional relationship, and are mounted to a front pillar or the like in a movable state. In relation to the rear field of vision of the vehicle, with the inside mirror part a field of vision to the vehicle rear including the inside of the passenger compartment is obtained, and with the outside mirror part a field of vision to the rear/side of the vehicle is obtained. A rear image obtained with the inside mirror part and a rear image obtained with the outside mirror part are made as an integrated and continuous image with no sense of incongruity.
Preferably, in the integrated mirror constructed as above, the inside mirror part and the outside mirror part are optically designed such that the images reflected in their mirror faces are formed on the basis of a common virtual view point and the images reflected in the mirror faces having continuity. With this arrangement, because the mirror faces of the inside mirror part and the outside mirror part are designed with a virtual view point as a reference optically, the rear images reflected in the respective mirror faces can be recognized as a continuous and integrated image.
Desirably, in the integrated mirror arranged as above, the inside mirror part and the outside mirror part move in linkage about an attaching part as a center of rotation. With this construction, in field of vision adjustment of the integrated mirror, if adjustment is carried out by gripping the inside mirror part, it is possible to perform field of vision adjustment of the outside mirror part at the same time, and it becomes possible to reduce the number of adjustments and lighten the adjustment burden.
In the integrated mirror arranged as above, it is preferred that the mirror position is adjustable by moving the inside mirror part. With this construction, the burden of the work of adjusting the rear image reflected in the mirror is lightened.
Preferably, in the integrated mirror arranged as above, the vehicle exterior part is left and right pillars. With this construction, integrated mirrors can be mounted with a simple structure.
In the integrated mirror arranged as above, the inside mirror part and the outside mirror part are preferably disposed at a height above the line of sight of the seated driver. With this construction, without making a blind angle in the field of vision ahead of the vehicle, it becomes possible to obtain a good forward field of view.
In the integrated mirror arranged as above, the inside mirror part and the outside mirror part are preferably disposed at a height above a driver's view point position decided on the basis of predetermined physique data. With this construction, it is possible to obtain a field of view good for the driver ahead of the vehicle.
In the integrated mirror arranged as above, the virtual view point is preferably provided in front of the front pillar and at a vehicle corner part and within a range of height from the ground to the vehicle height. With this construction, so that the field of vision becomes best for the driver, disposition of the integrated mirror suited to his physique becomes possible.
With this invention, because in a car or the like an integrated mirror in which an inside mirror part and an outside mirror part are integrated is mounted rotatably on the upper end or the like of a front pillar or the like, while preventing an increase of the forward blind angle of a front window and that vicinity, it is possible to lighten the burden of mirror adjustment for seeing rearward, lighten the burden of line of sight movement to rear view mirrors, and lighten the burden of the recognition task of combining reflected images obtained with multiple rear view mirrors in the head, and by this means it is possible to lighten the load on a driver driving the car of checking the situation to the rear.
A preferred embodiment of the invention will now be described on the basis of the accompanying drawings.
A perspective view of a passenger car having an integrated mirror according to the invention is shown in
In
In
With reference to
The integrated mirror 16 is made up of an outside mirror part 17 and an inside mirror part 18, and the two mirror parts 17, 18 are coupled at their back faces using a coupling member 21. In this embodiment, the outside mirror part 17 and the inside mirror part 18 are the same shape. However, the shapes and sizes of the mirror parts can be determined freely. The coupling member 21 is made with a member made of resin or metal or the like having a required rigidity, and has in its middle a spherical attaching member 22. The attaching member 22, as shown in
As is clear from
In an integrated mirror 16 having the construction described above, when adjusting the rear field of view, for example when the driver 19 grips the inside mirror part 18 and moves it while looking at the rear image reflected in the mirror face of the inside mirror part 18 so that that becomes optimal, the outside mirror part 17 also moves at the same time, and the rear image reflected in mirror face of that is also adjusted simultaneously.
In
With reference to
The virtual view point 31, for example, with the single dot chain line 26 shown in
The ‘standard physique’ mentioned above, speaking in relation to Japanese people, for example can be decided on the basis of measured physique data based on an ample modulus such as ‘Body Measurement Data of Japanese’ 1992 to 1994, published by the Human Life Engineering Research Center organization. The ‘3-dimensional position of the driver's view point in a standard physique’ that constitutes the setting reference of the virtual view point 31 can be specified by multiple test subjects having a standard physique of the kind mentioned above performing driver's seat adjustment multiple times. That is, after a standard physique of the target customer class of the vehicle in which the invention is to be employed is calculated, by a driver having that physique the virtual view point 31 is decided so that the field of vision becomes best.
In correspondence with increasing of the orientedness of customers in recent years, the front pillar design may be customized to suit individual customers. In this case, physique data of a customer is acquired before the vehicle is manufactured, and disposition of the virtual view point 31 and the integrated mirrors 16 is carried out so that a third party having that physique or the customer himself thinks them optimum from the point of view of field of vision.
If the sizes and shapes and mounting positions of the mirror parts 17, 18, and the virtual view point 31, are decided on the basis of an average physique of the target buying class of the vehicle in which the integrated mirror of the invention is to be employed, it is possible to realize a more comfortable outside visibility environment.
Because the integrated mirror 16 is mounted rotatably as already mentioned, it is also possible to adjust the field of vision angles 32, 33 as necessary in accordance with differences in the physique and the preferences of the driver 19.
As described above, in this invention, it is possible to survey the rear field of vision of the car 11 simultaneously with the mirror faces of the outside mirror part 17 and the inside mirror part 18 of the integrated mirror 16. At this time, the height position of the virtual view point 31 is made the position of the roof of the passenger compartment 12. With the outside mirror part 17 it is possible to see an outside field of vision (rear/side field of vision) 32, and with the inside mirror part 18 it is possible to see an inside field of vision 33. The outside field of vision 32 is about the same as the angle range that can be seen with a door mirror or the like of related art, and the inside field of vision 33 is an angle range that the passenger-seat-side edge part of the rear window is inside.
Because the virtual view point 31 described above is in front of the front pillar 15, a middle pillar 34 and a rear pillar 35, the dead angle 36 made by these pillars 15, 34, 35 is kept to a minimum. B the integrated mirror 16 being provided at the upper end part of the front pillar 15, it is possible to prevent a reduction in the front field of vision caused by the mirror part 18 and a reduction in the rear field of vision caused by the head of the driver 19. More preferably, the integrated mirror 16 is mounted on the upper end part of the front pillar 15 and in a position higher than the top of the head of the driver 19.
As mentioned above, in the optical design of the mirror faces of the outside mirror part 17 and the inside mirror part 18 in an integrated mirror 16 according to this embodiment, design is carried out so that the rear images reflected in the mirror faces have a common virtual view point 31.
For the rear field of vision of the integrated mirror 16 on the left side (the passenger seat side), on the basis of setting the virtual view point similarly in a position in front of the left side of the vehicle body of the car 11, it is set in a positional relationship of approximate line symmetry with the rear field of vision of the integrated mirror 16 on the right side.
In (A), (B) of
Although in the embodiment described above a construction was adopted in which the left and right integrated mirrors 16 were mounted on upper end parts of the front pillars 15, the mounting location is not limited to this. Besides this, they can be mounted on the passenger compartment 12 or vehicle exterior parts around that such as the front glass, the side glass (door glass), a roof part, or a sunroof part.
Although the use of flat mirrors for the mirror faces of the outside mirror part 17 and the inside mirror part 18 of the integrated mirror 16 is a premise, it is not limited to this. For example convex mirror faces projecting in the horizontal direction can be used. In this case, the size of the mirror part can be made small while maintaining the same field of vision angle as a flat mirror. Also, convex mirror faces projecting in the vertical direction can alternatively be used. In this case, it is possible to enlarge the field of vision angle in the vertical direction and enlarge the field of vision to the ground directly below the mirror.
With the embodiment described above, because the whole of the integrated mirror 16 has been made higher than the height position of the eyes of the driver 19, to the driver 19 there ceases to be any dead angle with respect to the travel road in front, and the front field of vision can be made large. When the inside mirror part 18 is adjusted, the outside mirror part 17 also moves in linkage with it, and essentially just by adjusting twice the left and right inside mirror parts 18 the whole can be adjusted easily.
Also, the outside mirror part 17 and the inside mirror part 18 of the left and right integrated mirrors 16 are disposed in proximity in positions inside and outside the passenger compartment 12A, when the integrated mirrors 16 are viewed it is possible to instantly join/combine the rear images reflected in each of the two mirror parts 17, 18 without relying on memory, and the burden of spacial awareness of the driver can be lightened. By the driver 19, the rear images reflected in the outside mirror part 17 and the inside mirror part 18 can be recognized continuously, and the mirror images inside and outside the passenger compartment can be joined mentally with no sense of incongruity. Also, as a result of the concept of the virtual view point 31 being introduced, setting of the sizes and mounting positions of the integrated mirrors 16 becomes easy.
Next, another embodiment of an integrated mirror according to the invention is shown in
The constructions, shapes, sizes and dispositional relations described in the foregoing embodiments are shown to a level such that it is possible to understand and work the invention, and the invention is not limited to the embodiments described, and it is possible to change it to various forms as long as it does not deviate from the scope of the technological idea shown in the scope of the patent claims.
This invention is used when while driving an automotive vehicle a driver or the like obtains the situation to the rear or to the rear and side of the vehicle.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2003-349596 | Oct 2003 | JP | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/JP04/14623 | 10/5/2004 | WO | 1/22/2007 |
