Remotely adjustable anti-glare vehicle mirror

• US 5,450,246 A
• Filed: 11/04/1992
• Issued: 09/12/1995
• Est. Priority Date: 11/04/1992
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Anvik Corporation
• Original Assignee: Anvik Corporation
• Inventors: Jain, Kanti
• Primary Examiner(s): Epps, Georgia Y.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Robbins, Thomas
• Application Number:
  US07/971,454
• Time in Patent Office: 1,042 Days
• Field of Search: 359/872, 359/873, 359/602-606, 359/874, 359/875, 359/877
• US Class Current: 359/877
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 1/068 using cables
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 1/072 for adjusting the mirror relative to its housing
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 1/08 involving special optical features, e.g. avoiding blind spots , e.g. convex mirrors; Side-by-side associations of rear-view and other mirrors B60R1/025, B60R1/10 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 1/087 with remote or automatic control means

Abstract

A remotely controllable single/triple reflection glare-deflecting vehicle mirror provides remote control directional adjustment to an appropriate view, and also provides for easy and reversible toggling between single-reflection viewing and triple-reflection viewing. The mirror view adjustment is by remote control cables, selectively manually powered or powered by small linear motors. This view adjustment is maintained even during periods when glare conditions require that the wedge mirror be moved to anti-glare position, which is also done by remote control. The motor-powered version permits easy toggling from anti-glare triple-reflectivity to glare-susceptible single-reflectivity or back, by a tap switch. The manual-powered version permits easy toggling from anti-glare triple-reflectivity to glare-susceptible single-reflectivity or back, by a simple in-out motion of a glare control knob on the joystick used for view adjustment.

Claims

1. A controllable single/multiple reflection glare-deflecting vehicle mirror system, having a wedge mirror (10) mounted in a housing, having remote control glare deflection means, and having direction adjustment mechanism, with remote control direction adjusting means, operable for directional adjustment of the wedge mirror for a selected view at a viewing position within the vehicle, said direction adjusting means comprising:

(a) a remote control mirror directional adjustment joystick (34);

(b) a tilt plate (12) for mounting said wedge mirror;

(c) a plurality of remote control slide cables (15-17), each having a sheath and a cable (31,32,35) within its respective sheath, each having a control end and an operating end, said operating ends being fixed to said wedge mirror (10) by means of said tilt plate (12);

(d) a remote control cable collar plate (30) fixing the control ends (15a-17a) of the sheaths of said remote control slide cables (15-17), and having a cable collar plate spring (11);

(e) a remote control joystick plate (33) attached to said joystick (34) and to the control ends (15b-17b) of said control slide cables (15-17);

(f) a mirror housing (14) mountable in fixed relationship to a vehicle, having a plurality of apertures (14a) of size appropriate to affix the sheaths of said remote control slide cables (15-17) to resist longitudinal movement of the sheath while permitting longitudinal movement of the respective slide cables;

said housing (14) also having an aperture (14b) of size ample to permit a remote control cable sheath to move longitudinally through said aperture (14b); and

(g) means connecting said joystick plate (33) to said cable collar plate spring

whereby a force urging said collar plate (30) away from said joystick plate (33) permits varying the effective length of said remote control slide cables (15-17) for directional adjustment of said wedge mirror (10) in response to rocking of said joystick (34); and

wherein said remote control glare deflection means comprises;

(h) means to shift said wedge mirror (10) between single reflection and multiple reflection positions, when viewed from a given direction while adjusted for a given view, in response to a small relative motion of said wedge mirror (10) with respect to said tilt plate (12), urged from a remote source.

2. A controllable vehicle mirror system according to claim 1, wherein said glare deflection means further comprises:

(i) a remote Control glare deflection knob (36);

(j) a remote control slide cable (26) having a sheath and within it a cable (28), said sheath passing through said spring (11) and connected to said plate (33), said cable having its control end affixed to said knob (36) and its operating end affixed to a toggle means (22,24);

(k) said cable collar plate (30) and said tilt plate (12) having longitudinal channels for said sheathed cable (26) to pass through; and

(l) said toggle means (22,24) holding said wedge mirror (10) with respect to said tilt plate (12) to permit a toggle motion from one position to another for single reflection and multiple reflection when viewed from a given direction while adjusted for a given view, in response to a small relative motion of said wedge mirror (10) and said tilt plate (12), urged from a remote source by push/pull of said glare control knob (36).

3. A controllable single/multiple reflection glare-deflecting vehicle mirror system, having a wedge mirror (10) mounted in a housing, having remote control glare deflection means including a glare toggling motor (44) and having direction adjustment mechanism, with remote control direction adjusting means including multiple direction control motors (41-43), operable for directional adjustment of the wedge mirror for a selected view at a viewing position within the vehicle, said direction adjusting means comprising:

(a) mirror housing (14) mountable on the vehicle;

(b) a tilt plate (12) mounted for limited motion within said mirror housing (14);

(c) remote mirror direction adjustment control means, effective to provide separate control signals to each of said wedge mirror direction control motors (41-43) and to said glare toggling means (44);

(d) a plurality of mirror positioning direction control motors (41-43) affixed operatively to said wedge mirror (10) to cause mirror motion with respect to said mirror housing (14) to a number of mirror directional positions in response to said plurality of mirror positioning signals;

whereby direction adjustment of said wedge mirror (10) is operable by remote control independently of said remote control glare deflection means; and

said remote control glare deflection means comprises;

(e) a glare toggling motor (44), operatively connected to provide relative motion between first and second positions of said tilt plate (12) and said wedge mirror (10); and

(f) toggle means (22,24) holding said wedge mirror (10) with respect to said tilt plate (12) to permit a toggled motion from one position to another for single reflection and multiple reflection when viewed from a given direction while adjusted for a given view, in response to a small relative motion between said wedge mirror (10) and said tilt plate (12), when urged by a remote source through said glare toggling motor (44).

4. A controllable single/multiple reflection glare-deflecting vehicle mirror system, having a wedge mirror (10) mounted in a housing, and having remote control direction adjusting mechanism, operable for direction adjustment of the wedge mirror for a selected view position, comprising:

(a) a mirror housing (14) mountable on the vehicle;

(b) a tilt plate (12) mounted for limited motion within said mirror housing (14);

(c) a plurality of remote control slide cables (15-17), each having a sheath and a cable (31,32,35) within its respective sheath, each having a control end and an operating end, said operating ends being fixed to said wedge mirror (10) by means of said tilt plate (12);

(d) a plurality of apertures (14a), in said housing (14), of size appropriate to affix the sheaths of said remote control slide cables (15-17) to resist longitudinal movement of the sheath while permitting longitudinal movement of the respective slide cables;

said housing (14) also having an aperture (14b) of size ample to permit a remote control cable sheath to move longitudinally through said aperture (14b); and

(e) a remote control cable collar plate (30) fixing the control ends (15a-17a) of the sheaths of said remote control slide cables (15-17);

whereby direction adjustment of said wedge mirror (10) is operable by remote control; and

further comprising;

(f) a remote control mirror switch plate (60);

(h) a glare control toggling tap switch (67), mounted on said switch plate (60), for providing a glare toggling control signal; and

(g) a glare toggling control motor (44) operatively connecting said wedge mirror (10) with respect to tilt plate (12), responsive to the glare toggling signal from said switch plate (60) to toggle the wedge mirror (10) to the desired glare position.

5. A controllable single/multiple reflection glare-deflecting vehicle mirror system, having a wedge mirror mounted in a housing, and having remote control direction adjusting mechanism operable for directional adjustment of the wedge mirror for a selected view position, said remote control direction adjusting means comprising:

(a) a remote control mirror direction adjustment switch plate (60) with means for providing direction control signals and a glare toggling signal;

(b) a tilt plate (12) mounted for limited motion within said mirror housing (14);

(e) a plurality of mirror directional control motors (41-43) mounted with respect to said tilt plate (12) for directional adjustment of the wedge mirror (10) in response to direction control signals from said switch plate (60); and

(f) a glare toggling control motor (44) responsive to the glare toggling signal from said switch plate (60) to toggle the wedge mirror (10).

6. A remote controllable high-reflection/low-reflection glare-deflecting vehicle mirror system, having a dual-reflectivity mirror and having directional adjustment mechanism, comprising

remote control direction adjusting means, operable for a directional adjustment of the dual-reflectivity mirror, for a selected view at a viewing position within the vehicle, said dual-reflectivity mirror having at least one thin-film coating having an angle-dependent reflection coefficient;

and

remote control glare toggling means operable to toggle the dual-reflectivity mirror between a high-reflection of the selected view at said viewing position within the vehicle and a low-reflection of the selected view at said viewing position within the vehicle, while retaining the directional adjustment.

7. A controllable color-balance-selecting vehicle mirror system, having a wavelength-dependent reflectivity, and having directional adjustment mechanism, operable for a directional adjustment of said color-balance-selecting mirror for a selected view at a viewing position within the vehicle, comprising color toggling means operable to toggle the color-balance-selecting mirror between a first angle providing a first color balance of the selected view at said viewing position within the vehicle and a second angle providing a second color balance of the selected view at said viewing position within the vehicle, while retaining a common directional adjustment.

8. A controllable multiple dielectric thin film vehicle mirror system, having a view-angle-dependent reflectivity mirror for a selected view at a viewing position within the vehicle, comprising toggling means operable to toggle said mirror between a first angle providing a first reflectivity of the selected view at said viewing position within the vehicle and a second angle providing a second reflectivity of the selected view at said viewing position within the vehicle, while retaining a common directional adjustment.

9. A remote control combination wedge and multiple dielectric thin film vehicle mirror system, having a view-angle-dependent reflectivity as a result of multiple dielectric thin films, and also having a number-of-reflections-dependent reflectivity as a result of orientation of a wedge mirror, comprising:

(a) a wedge mirror;

(b) a multiple dielectric thin film arrayed on the surface of said wedge mirror; and

(c) toggling means operable to move said wedge mirror between a first angle providing a first number of reflections for the selected view position, and a second angle providing a second number of reflections for the selected view position, while retaining a common directional adjustment;

whereby the mirror system provides dual means of glare control.

10. A controllable single/multiple reflection glare-deflecting vehicle mirror system, having a wedge mirror (10) mounted in a housing, having remote control glare deflection means, and having direction adjustment mechanism, with remote control direction adjusting means, operable for directional adjustment of the wedge mirror for a selected view at a viewing position within the vehicle, said direction adjusting means comprising:

(a) a mirror housing (14) mounted on the vehicle;

(b) a tilt plate (12) mounted for limited motion within said mirror housing (14);

(c) a remote control mirror direction adjustment switch plate (60), effective to provide a plurality of mirror positioning signals;

(d) a mirror control signal subsystem having a control plate (62) and a plurality of directional motor control switches (70,

     72) juxtaposed to provide mirror directional motor operating signals in response to rocking of said control plate (62);

(e) a glare control switch (67) mounted on said mirror control plate (62);

whereby said wedge mirror (10) is adjustable to a selected view by remote control independently of said remote control glare deflection means; and

further comprising;

(f) a glare toggling motor (44); and

(g) remote control glare toggling means (22,24) holding said wedge mirror (10) with respect to said tilt plate (12) to permit toggle motion of said mirror from one position to another for single reflection and multiple reflections when viewed from a given direction while adjusted for a given view, in response to a small relative motion between said wedge mirror (10) and said tilt plate (12), controlled by a signal to said glare toggling motor (44) from said remote glare control switch (67).

11. A remotely controllable vehicle mirror system according to claim 10,

further comprising:

a mirror selection switch (68) mounted adjacent to said glare control toggling switch (67) in said mirror control system, said mirror selection switch (68) operating to direct all mirror positioning control signals to a selected mirror.

12. A controllable high-reflection/low-reflection glare-deflecting vehicle mirror system having a dual-reflectivity mirror, and having directional adjustment mechanism, having remote control direction adjusting means, operable for a directional adjustment of the dual-reflectivity mirror for a selected view at a viewing position within the vehicle;

and comprising;

at least one thin-film coating on the mirror, having an angle-dependent reflection coefficient; and

remote control glare toggling means operable to toggle the dual-reflectivity mirror between a high-reflection of the selected view at said viewing position within the vehicle and a low-reflection of the selected view at said viewing position within the vehicle, while retaining a common directional adjustment.

13. A remote-control vehicle mirror system, having a mirror (10) with a number of view positions each having a related glare-reduced position, wherein said remote control direction adjusting means comprises:

(a) mirror housing (14) mountable on the vehicle;

(b) a tilt plate (12) mounted for limited motion within said mirror housing (14), operable to allow mirror movement from each of said number of view positions to respectively related reduce-glare view positions;

(c) a remote control mirror directional adjustment switch pad means (60), effective to provide a first set of mirror positioning signals and a related second set of reduced-glare mirror positioning signals;

(d) a set of mirror positioning direction control motors (41-43) affixed operatively to said mirror (10) to cause mirror repositioning with respect to said mirror housing (14) to a number of mirror directional positions in response to said first set of mirror positioning signals and in response to said second set of reduced-glare mirror positioning signals;

(e) control means for switching from said first set of mirror positioning signals to said second set of reduced-glare mirror positioning signals and back;

whereby said mirror (10) is adjustable by remote control to provide for glare toggling as well as view positioning.

14. The mirror system of claim 13 in which said remote control mirror directional adjustment switch pad means (60) comprises a tap switch (67) and said control means comprises a connection to tap switch (67) and has related tap switch controlled toggling electronics.