Door mirror with a small dead angle

• US 5,886,838 A
• Filed: 12/20/1996
• Issued: 03/23/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 12/22/1995
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Atsushi Kuramoto
• Original Assignee: Atsushi Kuramoto
• Inventors: Kuramoto, Atsushi
• Primary Examiner(s): Shafer, Ricky D.
• Application Number:
  US08/770,440
• Time in Patent Office: 823 Days
• Field of Search: 359/841, 359/843, 359/872, 359/873, 359/874, 359/876, 359/877, 359/881, 248/479, 248/480, 248/484, 248/485, 248/486, 248/487, 362/83.1
• US Class Current: 359/841
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 1/07 by electrically powered actuators

Abstract

A door mirror with a small dead angle which enables the driver to easily see the areas where the right and left front and rear wheels are touching the ground that could not been seen with conventional door mirrors due to dead angles, and to easily see the horizontal forward direction (if there are oncoming cars) on the side of the assistant driver'"'"'s seat at the time of passing another car ahead by manipulating buttons on the driver'"'"'s seat and, then, automatically returns to its initial state. The door mirror with a small dead angle comprises a support arm which includes a straight-moving screw, a slide plate that slides in the lengthwise direction thereof, and a mirror case pivoted on the slide plate to rotate. The door mirror may be further equipped with movable sources of light, may be constructed so as to be folded and may contain a fine adjustment mechanism in the mirror case. The door mirror is further equipped with a control/electrically moving mechanism by which the mirror case is automatically moved up to the coordinates that have been set in advance in a CPU enabling the driver to see the otherwise dead-angled areas, and the mirror case is returned back either manually or automatically.

Claims

1. A vehicle door mirror, comprising:

a base mountable to a vehicle;

a support arm pivotally attached to the base, the support arm having a worm gear and a guide, and being pivotable about a lengthwise direction of the support arm;

a slide plate slidably engaging the guide for movement in the lengthwise direction of the support arm along the guide, said slide plate being adjustably slidable by rotation of the worm gear; and

a mirror case pivotally attached to the slide plate, the mirror case being pivotable about a height direction of the mirror case perpendicular to the lengthwise direction of the support arm.

2. A door mirror according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the mirror case and the support arm has a movable source of light thereon.

3. A door mirror according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the base comprises a base plate and an auxiliary plate pivotally attached to the door, and the support arm is pivotally attached to the auxiliary plate.

4. A door mirror according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the mirror case comprises a rearview mirror case having a mirror surface, and includes a mechanism for finely adjusting a viewing angle of the mirror surface longitudinally and transversely with respect to the vehicle.

5. A door mirror according to claim 1, wherein:

the mirror has an ordinary mirror surface position set by a vehicle operator for viewing the rear of the vehicle, and a plurality of dead angle mirror surface positions predetermined by a vehicle operator for allowing the vehicle operator to view visual fields which are not clearly visible when the mirror is in the ordinary mirror position;

the mirror also including a control unit responsive to signals from a CPU, the CPU including stored information corresponding to the dead angle mirror surface positions;

the control unit generating signals to move the mirror to position the mirror surface in a selected one of the dead angle mirror surface positions.

6. The door mirror according to claim 5, wherein the CPU also includes stored information corresponding to the ordinary mirror position, and the control unit includes a circuit for generating signals to move the mirror to the ordinary mirror position, the circuit being responsive to at least one of activation of a manually operated switch, passage of a predetermined period of time, attainment of a predetermined forward traveling speed of the vehicle, and deactivation of an ignition switch of the vehicle.