Rear-view mirror with multifunctional signal

• US 7,192,171 B2
• Filed: 06/20/2005
• Issued: 03/20/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 07/12/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Alejandro Rodriguez Barros, Jose Manuel Rodriguez Fernandez
• Original Assignee: Alejandro Rodriguez Barros, Jose Manuel Rodriguez Fernandez
• Inventors: Rodriguez Fernandez, Jose Manuel, Rodriguez Barros, Alejandro
• Primary Examiner(s): Cariaso; Alan
• Assistant Examiner(s): Truong; Bao Q.
• Application Number:
  US11/157,075
• Publication Number:
  US 20050276059A1
• Time in Patent Office: 638 Days
• Field of Search: 362/494, 362/492, 362/135, 362/136, 362/800, 362/540, 362/544, 362/545, 362/543, 362/511, 362/509, 362/516, 362/240, 362/294, 340/475, 340/478, 340/468, 340/469, 340/474
• US Class Current: 362/494
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 1/2665 on rear-view mirrors lighting devices for vehicle interior on or for rear-view mirrors B60Q3/258
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 1/1207 with lamps; with turn indicators
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2001/1215 with information displays
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2001/1223 with sensors or transducers
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2001/123 with thermometers
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2001/1253 with cameras, video cameras or video screens
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 362/80 Light emitting diode

Abstract

The invention relates to a rear-view mirror for vehicles, which consists of compatible, combinable and exchangeable modules such as: (A) and (B), or integrated (A+B), functional, signal, lighting and sensor modules, and structural (C), (D) and (E) modules; cover-housing, body-housing and support which may include functional modules. (A), (B) and (A+B) fulfill their function even if the rear-view mirror is folded. They use a multifocal light source of LED'"'"'s inserted into a flexible and orientable circuit and/or a mixed rigid-flexible circuit-combining LED'"'"'s+bulbs and other lighting elements, with variable optical and reflective means enabling more than one signal from one same transparent surface with direct light output, indirect-reflected light output and/or through intermediate optical light guides depending on the directions required in the front, the side, the back and the lateral ground for different commands, applications and safety signals.

Claims

1. Vehicle rear-view side mirror with multifunctional signal comprising:

a housing (D) adapted to be attached by a support (10) to an outer surface of said vehicle, with a first opening having at least one prisms rear-viewing element, camera or mirror;

a second opening including at least an aperture facing to a front part of said vehicle with respect to a driving direction, said second opening accommodating an emitter assembly including one light source and/or one reflector (12) for emitting at least luminous signals provided with a cover including at least a translucent or transparent or in part colorless tinted surface (1) configured to permit a passage of light towards said front part and/or towards a ground area in a lateral zone of the rear-view side mirror and towards a rear part through a side end area led away from said outer surface of the vehicle and open towards the rear of said vehicle,

said emitter assembly is associated with an electronic control circuit to produce at least one turn-signal indicator function and an additional security signal and to use and/or combine various signals of different types or multiple functions by application of different commands, different light sources, on/off times, and/or is adapted to combine different internal arrangements with intercalated emitter assemblies, of the same or different type, form and color,

wherein said at least translucent or transparent surface (1) is located in an area between upper and lower horizontal tangents delimiting superior and inferior parts of said housing (D), and placed at a back part of said mirror (50), allowing a light signal to be projected therethrough at least on a plane perpendicular to driving axis (500) to the front and rear, respectively.

2. The vehicle rear-viewside mirror according to claim 1, characterized in that said emitter assembly is also adapted to emit signals of a non-luminous type, and is selected from the group consisting of:

sound signals, ultrasound signals and radio frequency signals.

3. The vehicle rear-viewside mirror according to claim 2, characterized in that said emitter assembly is adapted to receive signals of different types by means of corresponding sensors, which sensors are selected from the group consisting of:

light, temperature, infrared, ultrasound, and radio frequency sensors.

4. The vehicle rear-viewside mirror according to claim 3, characterized in that said sensors and/or emitter assemblies are associated with an electronic control circuit, with a purpose to carry out said multiple functions, said application of different commands and/or of said different on/off times, after said sensors are activated manually or automatically, locally or remotely.

5. The vehicle rear-viewside mirror according to claim 1, characterized in that said intercalated emitter assemblies are selected from the group consisting of:

LEDs, multichips LEDs, bulbs, neons, OLES, infrared LEDs or a combination of these for the same or different function.

6. The vehicle rear-viewside mirror according to claim 5, characterized in that said emitter assemblies are associated with one or more catadioptric reflecting elements.

7. The vehicle rear-viewside mirror according to claim 1, 5 or 6, characterized in that said emitter assemblies are arranged on a single circuit.

8. The vehicle rear-viewside mirror according to claim 1, characterized in that said emitter assembly comprises a transparent light conductor body (150) with at least one light input aimed at one or more light emitters of a different color, said emitter assembly being able to alternate and/or combine the turning on of said light emitters.

9. The vehicle rear-viewside mirror according to claim 1, characterized in that said emitter assembly comprises one emitter, externally visible, arranged to emit a colored light in a direct manner, and another emitter, not externally visible, arranged to emit a light with a different color in a diffused reflected manner, being said emitter assembly adapted to produce signals of more than one color by combining said different colored lights.

10. The vehicle rear-viewside mirror according to claim 1, characterized in that said emitter assembly is adapted to produce signals of more than one color based upon combining a reflected colored light and an indirect light of another color, through some optical bodies (150) included in the emitter assembly.

11. The vehicle rear-viewside mirror according to claim 1, characterized in that said emitter assembly is adapted to produce signals of more than one color by combining one light emitter with at least one mask that lets a part of the light pass through and reflects another part of the light, or with a color filter for a determined function and direction.

12. The vehicle rear-viewside mirror according to claim 1, characterized in that said emitter assembly is adapted to produce light signals of more than one color by combining alternated, sectorized emitter assemblies of different colors and/or different colored emitter assemblies projected on a diffuser or collimator reflector.

13. The vehicle rear-viewside mirror according to claim 1, characterized in that said emitter assembly is adapted to produce signals of more than one color and/or of the same color by combining an electroluminescent substrate OLES with LEDs.

14. The vehicle rear-viewside mirror according to claim 1, characterized in that said emitter assembly is adapted to produce at least one signal of the same color using as a light source at least one bulb interconnected in parallel with at least a series of LEDs.

15. The vehicle rear-viewside mirror according to claim 1, characterized in that said emitter assembly is adapted to carry out a door opening pre-warning function by means of one or more emitter assemblies governed by a controller circuit (320) that produces a different on/off frequency than that of an emitter which acts as a turn-signal indicator, or a stroboscopic effect.

16. The vehicle rear-viewside mirror according to claim 15, characterized in that in order to carry out said opening pre-warning function said emitter assembly uses a single emitter that also acts as a turn-signal indicator.

17. The vehicle rear-viewside mirror according to claim 15, characterized in that said controller circuit (320) is driven by a switch command in an inside opening lever of each door (308) and/or by a centralized switch in a vehicle'"'"'s interior zone, and/or by an inverse switch that is activated when a taximeter (307) is stopped, and/or by a photodiode of any wavelength placed in an internal door lever that closes the controller circuit when a hand approaches the opening lever.

18. The vehicle rear-viewside mirror according to claim 1, characterized in that said emitter assembly has in a part of said surface (1) an interior mechanized prism that produces a catadioptric reflective surface which reflects the exterior white light towards the front and/or yellow light to a side in order to make the vehicle'"'"'s presence known.

19. The vehicle rear-viewside mirror according to claim 1, characterized in that said emitter assembly is adapted to carry out, by using of one or more non intermittent light emitter assemblies, at least one of the functions selected from the group consisting of:

end-outline marker light, position light, frontal and lateral illumination complementing the function carried out by the vehicle'"'"'s front lights, and fog lights.

20. The vehicle rear-viewside mirror according to claim 1, characterized in that the emitter assembly is adapted to carry out a deceleration warning function that anticipates a brake, using a signal complementary to said vehicle'"'"'s rearward signals.

21. The vehicle rear-viewside mirror according to claim 20, characterized in that said emitter assembly is adapted to carry out said deceleration warning function by using one or more emitter assemblies activated by a combined, automatic controller command (300), (305) integrated and synchronized with the a vehicle'"'"'s emergency lights, which when activated initiates three road signal actions and combines two different coloured signal areas.

22. The vehicle rear-viewside mirror according to claim 20, characterized in that said emitter assembly is adapted to carry out said deceleration warning function by means of a connection of a controller (300) done voluntarily by a driver that synchronizes the following actions upon its connectioh to said controller (300):

deceleration warning upon making contact with a switch (301) placed at any part of an acceleration system that is activated when releasing an accelerator pedal, provoking the turning on of one or more emitter assemblies (4) at a low intensity through a resistor attenuator circuit (306),

turning on of emitter assemblies (4) at full intensity, upon activating a brake (302) together with a vehicle'"'"'s brake lights, and activating, at the same time, a clock controller (305), which is voluntarily adjusted with respect to time and/or velocity,

activating some emitter assemblies that act as turn-signal indicators when a programmed time in said clock (305) is passed, and

ending and restarting the process when deactivating the brake (302).

23. The vehicle rear-viewside mirror according to claim 1, characterized in that said emitter assembly is adapted to carry out a detection function, manually or automatically selectable, by the use of one or more photodiodes (25-B) orientated towards an area to be covered.

24. The vehicle rear-viewside mirror according to claim 23, characterized in that said emitter assembly is adapted to carry out a warning function, in response to said detection function, for which said emitter assembly comprises an operation indicator (51) on the same rear-view mirror, and/or a sonorous indicator (70), and/or a luminous or sonorous indicator in the vehicle'"'"'s interior, to be activated if something is detected when the emitter assembly is carrying out said detection function.

25. The vehicle rear-viewside mirror according to claim 23, characterized in that said emitter assembly, in order to carry out said detection function, is adapted to use a synchronized signal between right and left rear-view mirrors, which includes a codified emission of at least one signal by means of at least one infrared LED (25-A) from each rear-view mirror in the frontal direction (F1) and the detection of the presence or approach of a body in front of the vehicle by the detection with at least one photodiode (25-B) of the interruption of the signal emitted by said infrared LED (25-A).

26. The vehicle rear-viewside mirror according to claim 25, characterized in that said emitter assembly comprises a sonorous diode and/or a light indicator in the vehicle'"'"'s interior visible by a driver in order to warn of the danger of an approximation from the front, if said photodiode (25-B) detects said interruption of the signal emitted by said infrared LED (25-A), codified or not, by a codifier circuit.

27. The vehicle rear-viewside mirror according to claim 1, characterized in that said emitter assembly is adapted to carry out an indicator function of the presence of the vehicle carrying the emitter assembly, for which said emitter assembly uses a signal as an indicator to indicate the vehicle'"'"'s presence when parked by activating an intermittent LED (00 or 75) in said emitter assembly for each rear-view mirror and for each side of the vehicle, which is susceptible to be activated upon stopping the car, and/or connecting an alarm, and/or activating the a central locking system by a remote control (360) by means of an inverse switch (78) in combination with an ignition key.

28. The vehicle rear-viewside mirror according to claim 1, characterized in that said emitter assembly comprises, with the purpose of carrying out one or more of said multiple functions, elements which are complementary of the signals, as control indicators of their operation by means of a sonorous element (70) and/or visually outwards from the emitter assembly and/or in the vehicle'"'"'s interior, by means of a mini LED (00, 25, 25-A or 30), or by means of an optical output (51) or a small window of light opposite to said surface (1) of said cover, located in the interior of said housing (D) inside a shadowed area (200) and visible to a driver'"'"'s eyes (202).

29. The vehicle rear-viewside mirror according to claim 1, characterized in that the emitter assembly is adapted to use a signal to be emitted in a frontal direction that produces a stroboscopic effect or rapid flash based on a discharging tube (80) and/or LEDs and an ignition circuit.

30. The vehicle rear-viewside mirror according to claim 1, characterized in that the emitter assembly is adapted to use one single light emitter as a source for two different functions, one as frontal illumination and another as lateral illumination.

31. The vehicle rear-viewside mirror according to claim 1 characterized in that the emitter assembly comprises a mask or filter associated to at least a light-emitter, to give color to the light in at least one direction.

32. The vehicle rear-viewside mirror according to claim 1, characterized in that said emitter assembly is adapted to laterally emit light from the same transparent surface (1) by means of at least one emitter and/or a multi-focal system with more than one emitter positioned with equal or different orientation between them.

33. The vehicle rear-viewside mirror according to claim 1, characterized in that said emitter assembly is adapted to emit light downwards by means of a manual (262) or a motorized (280) rotative module, such that said module permits turning of the module around a vertical axis from 0°

to more than 180°

towards the front or rear wheel for complementary tasks and/or to facilitate maneuvers.

34. The vehicle rear-viewside mirror according to claim 33, characterized in that said rotative module has a device that permits it to be adjusted and retained in a determined position, by means of a piece (251), complementary pressure frame/mark, tooth (214) or screws (250 and 258), halfway between said emitter assembly and the part of the rear-view mirror which contains the rotative module, the housing (D) or chassis.

35. The vehicle rear-viewside mirror according to claim 1, characterized in that said emitter assembly is adapted to be initiated when activating a central locking system and/or alarm (355) and/or voluntarily or by any system that locks and disables the vehicle or automatically upon opening or closing the door, and/or synchronized with a gear lever, in first gear and reverse positions, at low velocity (354), and is turned off manually or automatically by a clock (310).