Vehicle safety system
First Claim
1. A system for automatically adjusting the angle of a rotatable side view mirror of a vehicle having a trailer coupled thereto, said system comprising:
- three transducers, each comprising a transmitter and a receiver, and attached to said vehicle and spaced apart from one another for transmitting signals toward said trailer and for separately receiving signals reflected by said trailer;
a control circuit operative to control said transducers to determine an angle between said vehicle and said trailer based on the signals transmitted and received by said transducers, wherein said vehicle and said trailer may be angled relative to each other within a predetermined angular range comprising a plurality of angular range portions and said control circuit is operative to control different ones of said transducers based on the angular range portion within which the determined angle falls, one transducer transmitting a signal by a first path for reception by said one transducer and one of said one transducer or another transducer transmitting a signal by a second path for reception by another transducer during an angular range portion; and
a drive unit for rotating said rotatable side view mirror based on the determined angle.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An apparatus for automatically adjusting the angle of a rotatable side view mirror of a vehicle having a trailer coupled thereto includes transducers attached to the vehicle for transmitting signals toward the trailer and for receiving signals reflected by the trailer. A control unit includes memory for storing dimensional information and a control circuit for generating a mirror control signal for controlling rotation of the rotatable side view mirror. The control circuit is operative to control at least one of the transducers to determine an angle between the vehicle and the trailer based on a time required for signals transmitted by the respective controlled at least one transducer to be reflected back to the respective at least one controlled transducer. The control circuit generates the mirror control signal based on the determined angle. The vehicle and the trailer may be angled relative to each other within a predetermined angular range including a plurality of angular range portions and the control circuit is operative to control different ones of the transducers based on the angular range portion within which the current angle falls. A drive unit supplied with the mirror control signal rotates the rotatable side view mirror.
89 Citations
17 Claims
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1. A system for automatically adjusting the angle of a rotatable side view mirror of a vehicle having a trailer coupled thereto, said system comprising:
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three transducers, each comprising a transmitter and a receiver, and attached to said vehicle and spaced apart from one another for transmitting signals toward said trailer and for separately receiving signals reflected by said trailer; a control circuit operative to control said transducers to determine an angle between said vehicle and said trailer based on the signals transmitted and received by said transducers, wherein said vehicle and said trailer may be angled relative to each other within a predetermined angular range comprising a plurality of angular range portions and said control circuit is operative to control different ones of said transducers based on the angular range portion within which the determined angle falls, one transducer transmitting a signal by a first path for reception by said one transducer and one of said one transducer or another transducer transmitting a signal by a second path for reception by another transducer during an angular range portion; and a drive unit for rotating said rotatable side view mirror based on the determined angle. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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- 6. A control circuit for controlling transducers attached to a vehicle, said transducers being arranged to transmit signals toward a trailer and receive signals reflected by said trailer, said control circuit operative to control said transducers to determine an angle between said vehicle and said trailer based on the signals transmitted and received by said transducers, wherein said vehicle and said trailer may be angled relative to each other within a predetermined angular range comprising a plurality of angular range portions and said control circuit is operative to control different ones of said transducers based on the angular range portion within which the determined angle falls, one transducer transmitting a signal by a first path for reception by said one transducer and one of said one or another transducer transmitting a signal by a second path for reception by another transducer during an angular range portion.
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11. A system for automatically adjusting the angle of a rotatable side view mirror of a vehicle having a trailer coupled thereto, said system comprising:
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three transducers, each comprising a transmitter and a receiver, and attached to said vehicle and spaced apart from one another for transmitting signals toward said trailer and for seperately receiving signals reflected by said trailer; and a control circuit operative to control said transducers to determine an angle between said vehicle and said trailer based on the signals transmitted and received by said transducers wherein said control circuit is operative to control different ones of said transducers based on an angular range portion within which the determined angle falls, one transducer transmitting a signal by a first path for reception by said one transducer and one of said one transducer or another transducer transmitting a signal by a second path for reception by another transducer. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A control circuit for controlling transducers attached to a vehicle, ones of said transducers being arranged to transmit signals toward a trailer according to different signal propagation paths to themselves and to others and receive signals reflected by said trailer according to the different paths of signal propagation between said transducers, said control circuit operative to control said transducers to determine an angle between said vehicle and said trailer based on the signals transmitted and received by said transducers wherein said vehicle and said trailer may be angled relative to each other within a predetermined angular range comprising a plurality of angular range portions and said control circuit operative to control different ones of said transducer signal propagation paths based on the angular range portion within which the determined angle falls.
Specification