A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material that is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever. 37 CFR 1.71(d).
The following includes information that may be useful in understanding the present invention(s). It is not an admission that any of the information provided herein is prior art, or material, to the presently described or claimed inventions, or that any publication or document that is specifically or implicitly referenced is prior art.
1. Field of the Invention
The presently claimed invention relates generally to the field of vehicle camera systems. More specifically, the invention is an automatic side mirror camera system for a vehicle, structure and arranged to eliminate blind spots, with a built in video display on the side mirror.
A vehicle's blind spot is one or more areas around a vehicle that cannot be directly observed by the driver while at the vehicle's controls, under existing circumstances. Many types of vehicles have blind spots, including aircraft, cars, motorboats, sailboats, and trucks. There are only a few types of transportation that do not have blind spots, such as horses, bicycles, and motorcycles. Proper adjustment of mirrors and other technical solutions such as blind spot cameras are currently used to reduce or eliminate vehicle blind spots. However, not all cars are built with the necessary video display system inside the car, especially older models.
Various attempts have been made to solve the above-mentioned problems such as those found in U.S. Pat. and Pub. Nos. 6,954,152; 9,216,689; 10,195,994; 2009/0066836; 2013/0155236; 2018/0015879; 2018/0290594. This art is representative of blind spot cameras. None of the above inventions and patents, taken either singly or in combination, is seen to describe the invention as claimed.
Ideally, a blind spot camera system should provide an automatic blind spot camera that would operate reliably and be manufactured at a modest expense and be installable in older vehicle models as well as newly manufactured models. Thus, a need exists for a reliable smart signal automatic side mirror camera system, structure and arranged to eliminate vehicle blind spots, with a built in video display portion in the side mirror, to avoid the above-mentioned problems.
In view of the foregoing disadvantages inherent in the known blind spot camera systems art, the presently claimed invention provides a novel smart signal automatic vehicle blind spot camera. The general purpose of the present invention, which will be described subsequently in greater detail is to provide an automatic side mirror camera system for a vehicle where the camera system is structured and arranged to eliminate blind spots, and the side mirror has a built-in video display portion, enabling drivers to see both the mirror and the camera display at the same time.
The presently claimed smart blind spot camera system is a turn signal system with built-in camera that automatically activate when the turn signal is on. Side mirrors can't completely eliminate blind spots, forcing drivers to constantly turn their heads when changing lanes, turning, parking, and many other necessary driving activities. As the presently claimed smart blind spot camera system automatically activates when the turn signal is on, drivers can see to the side and behind the vehicle without taking their eyes off the road. This makes driving significantly safer.
Additionally, as the side mirror has a built-in video display portion, the driver can see both what is in the mirror, and what is displayed by the camera, at the same time, without having to shift their gaze. These side mirrors are installable on vehicles that were manufactured without an internal video display monitor, and are therefore useful for older models of vehicle as well as newly manufactured vehicles.
The presently claimed invention holds significant improvements and serves as an improved smart blind spot camera system is a turn signal system with built-in camera that automatically activate when the turn signal is on. For purposes of summarizing the invention, certain aspects, advantages, and novel features of the invention have been described herein. It is to be understood that not necessarily all such advantages may be achieved in accordance with any one particular embodiment of the invention. Thus, the invention may be embodied or carried out in a manner that achieves or optimizes one advantage or group of advantages as taught herein without necessarily achieving other advantages as may be taught or suggested herein. The features of the invention that are believed to be novel are particularly pointed out and distinctly claimed in the concluding portion of the specification. These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the present invention will become better understood with reference to the following drawings and detailed description.
The figures that accompany the written portion of this specification illustrate embodiments and method(s) of use for the present invention, a vehicle side mirror with video display and automatic camera system, constructed and operative according to the teachings of the presently claimed invention.
The various embodiments of the present invention will hereinafter be described in conjunction with the appended drawings, wherein like designations denote like elements.
As discussed above, embodiments of the presently claimed invention relate to a smart signal automatic vehicle blind spot camera, and more particularly to an automatic side mirror camera system for a vehicle where the camera system is structured and arranged to improve the vehicle's blind spots, and the side mirror has a built-in video display portion.
Referring to the drawings by numerals of reference there is shown in
A video display portion 9 is also located within the mirror housing 4, with the mirror 5 shaped around the video display portion 9 so that a driver can view both the mirror 5 and the video display portion 9 at the same time. The video display portion 9 is connected to the camera 2 to display the images captured by the camera thereon. The camera 2 and video display portion 9 are also connected to the vehicle's 7 turn signal so that the camera 2 and video display portion 9 automatically turn on when a turn signal indicator 8 is activated.
The camera 2 is adjustable so the driver can view different angles around the vehicle 7, ensuring all blind spots are covered by the camera 2. The camera is connected to one or more proximity sensors 10 that detects an obstacle or another vehicle in the blind spot and automatically turns on the camera 2 and video display portion 9. The proximity sensor(s) 10 may also include a radar detector.
As shown in
The embodiments of the invention described herein are exemplary and numerous modifications, variations and rearrangements can be readily envisioned to achieve substantially equivalent results, all of which are intended to be embraced within the spirit and scope of the invention. Further, the purpose of the foregoing abstract is to enable the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the public generally, and especially the scientist, engineers and practitioners in the art who are not familiar with patent or legal terms or phraseology, to determine quickly from a cursory inspection the nature and essence of the technical disclosure of the application.
The present application is related to and claims priority from prior provisional application Ser. No. 63/131618, filed Dec. 29, 2020, the entire application of which is incorporated herein by reference.
Number | Date | Country | |
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63131618 | Dec 2020 | US |