GB1597346A

GB1597346A - Accessory to be fixed onto a rear-view mirror

Info

Publication number: GB1597346A
Application number: GB5275977A
Authority: GB
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1977-01-03
Filing date: 1977-12-19
Publication date: 1981-09-03
Also published as: ES252913Y; CH612382A5; IT1089600B; DE2756573A1; ES252913U

Abstract

The attachment is composed of a wedge-shaped mirror piece (2) having a level base surface (14) which can be mounted onto the level viewing surface of the rear view mirror (1) and having a mirror surface (15) which is inclined towards the latter surface. Furthermore, means are provided for fastening the mirror piece (2) on the surface of the rear view mirror. <IMAGE>

Description

(54) ACCESSORY TO BE FIXED ONTO A REAR-VIEW MIRROR (71) I, FRITZ BRUNNER, a Swiss citizen of St. Johanns-Platz 26, Basel, Switzerland, do hereby declare the invention, for which I pray that a patent may be granted to me, and the method by which it is to be performed, to be particularly described in and by the following statement:- The present invention is related to rearview mirrors such as those used in automobiles, and more particularly, an accessory adapted to be mounted or fixed onto such rear-view mirrors, especially onto a rear-view mirror of the type having a substantially planar viewing or reflecting surface.

The invention also relates to such an accessory in combination with a rear-view mirror.

It is known to use rear-view mirrors in all cases where it is desired to enable a user to watch a portion of his environment which is substantially located behind the user, without the need to modify substantially his normal view direction, for instance by turning his head. Rear-view mirrors are used especially in vehicles such as automobiles where they enable the driver to watch the road behind the driver and the vehicle without modifying his normal view direction corresponding to the portion of the road in front of the driver and the vehicle. Modern automobiles are usually equipped with a rear-view mirror which is mounted inside the vehicle, as well as with at least one rear-view mirror mounted outside the vehicle.

Known rear-view mirrors having a sub stantially planar viewing or reflecting surface are not satisfactory in that the reflected image viewed by the user has a comparatively limited range or angle. Especially in the case of a rear-view mirror of this kind which is mounted on a truck; or van, this limitation of the view range or angle is extremely disadvantageous and is very often the cause of road accidents, since under certain circumstances the driver cannot conveniently watch the road behind the vehicle or/and behind and to one side of the vehicle.

In order to obviate this undesirable limitation of the field of view it has been proposed to provide rear-view mirrors having a curved reflecting surface whereby the field of view is substantially enlarged as compared to that of the conventional rear-view mirrors having a planar reflecting surface. However, these mirrors, which are often called "largeangle mirrors" or "panoramic mirrors" require a high precision of their optically active, or reflecting, surface (or viewing surface) and thus their manufacture is rather complex and consequently costly. Furthermore they have the drawbacck that the reflected image is substantially diminished or reduced, whereby convenient and effective observation of the road portion, or the like, reflected by the rear-view mirror is in many cases rendered very difficult.

It is one object of the present invention to provide a simple, inexpensive accessory adapted to be fixed onto a conventional rearview mirror having a planar viewing or reflecting surface, with a view to enlarging the view angle, or range, of the rear-view mirror, and thus to overcome the drawbacks of the conventional rear-view mirrors.

According to one aspect of this invention, I propose an accessory adapted to be fixed onto a rear-view mirror, and comprising a mirror piece having a substantially planar base surface and a substantially planar reflecting surface inclined at a predetermined angle with respect to the base surface, and fixing means for fixing the mirror piece onto the reflecting surface of the rear-view mirror.

The accessory is particularly suited for use with rear-view mirrors having a substantially planar reflecting surface and, further, is substantially triangular, i.e. wedge-shaped, in cross section.

According to another aspect of the present invention, I propose a rear-view mirror unit comprising a rear-view mirror having a substantially planar reflecting surface and an accessory according to the said one aspect of the invention, wherein the accessory is fixed onto the mirror by the fixing means such that the base surface of the accessory is applied to the planar reflecting surface of the mirror with the reflecting surface of the accessory inclined towards the reflecting surface of the mirror in the direction in which the view range of the rear-view mirror unit is to be enlarged. The invention enables manufacture in an extremely simple and inexpensive manner of a rear-view mirror unit, or to modify an existing rear-view mirror, so as to enlarging the view angle of the unit, as compared to the view angle of the nonmodified mirror, in a selected direction and in an amount which is a function of the selected value of the angle formed between the base surface and the reflecting surface of the accessory.

Embodiments of the invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings of which: Fig. 1 is a schematic perspective a rear view mirror unit including an accessory according to the invention.

Fig. 2 is an optical diagram including a cross-section of the rear-view mirror unit of Fig. 1 taken along line II--II of Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is in perspective view another embodiment of a rear-view mirror unit using the accessory according to the invention; Fig. 4 shows still another embodiment of a rear-view unit in accordance with the invention; and Fig. 5 is an optical diagram including a cross-section along line V-V, the unit of Fig.

4.

The rear-view mirror unit shown in Fig.

1 includes a conventional rear-view mirror having an essentially planar mirror plate 1; and an accessory 2a in the form of a mirror piece, the reflecting surface of which is in dined at an angle F (see Figure 2), to the reflecting surface of the mirror plate 1.

In Fig. 2 the eye of the user is schematically represented at 3. Lines 8, 9, 10 and 12 represent the directions in which the rear-view mirror unit is viewed by the user. These view-directions correspond to respective incident light rays 8', 9', 10' and 12' and thus constitute the reflected rays corresponding, respectively, to said incident rays. As shown in the Figure, the field of view of the image reflected by the rear-view mirror would be limited at the right side (with reference to the drawing) by incident ray 8', if the accessory 2a was not present. In this case, the field of view would be limited at the left side by the incident ray 11' indicated by a dotted line, said incident ray 11' corresponding to the reflected ray 11 which is also indicated by a dotted line. However as shown in the drawing, these optical conditions are modified by the provision of accessory 2a, since due to the inclination of the reflecting surface of the latter the field of view defined by the unit of Figs. 1 and 2 is delimited, in fact, at the left side, by incident ray 9' corresponding to reflected ray (the user's direction of view) 9, the reflection taking place in the immediate vicinity of the right edge of accessory 2a on the reflecting surface of mirror plate 1. The view direction (or reflected ray) 12 at the left end of the field of view corresponds to incident ray 12' reflected by the reflecting surface of accessory 2a, while incident ray 10' received at the right end of the accessory is reflected to the eye 3 of the user in the direction indicated by line 10. As shown in the Figure, incident ray 10! intersects incident ray 8', which means that the field of view is enlarged towards the right side, due to the accessory 2a. This fact is indicated by lines 5 and 6; line 6 represents the width of the field of view at a given distance from the rear-view mirror unit in the absence of accessory 2a, whereas line 5 represents the width of the field of view range resulting from the provision of accessory 2a.

The angle of reflection of a light ray reflected by a planar reflecting surface and corresponding to an incident ray is equal to the angle of incidence of the incident ray with respect to the reflecting surface. In fact, Fig. 2 shows that the angle of incidence a of incident ray 8' is equal to reflecting angle A of the associated reflected ray 8; similarly, angle of incidence b and reflecting angle B of rays 9' and 9, respectively, are equal to each other, angle of incidence c is equal to reflecting angle C (rays 10' and 10); angle of incidence d is equal to reflecting angle D (rays 12' and 12), and angle of incidence e is equal to reflecting angle E (rays 11' and 11, in the theoretical case of the absence of accessory 2a).

Fig. 3 shows an embodiment wherein the planar reflecting surface, or mirror surface 1, has at each of its lateral zones, a wedge-shaped reflecting accessory 2b, 2c. In this embodi ment the field of view of the thus modified original rear-view mirror having a planar reflecting surface is enlarged, on the one hand, towards, the right-hand side by mirror piece 2b and, on the other hand, towards, the lefthand side by mirror piece 2c.

Fig. 4 shows another embodiment wherein the mirror piece 2d fixed onto the left side of mirror plate 1 is so arranged that its reflecting surface is inclined toward the left-hand edge of mirror plate 1. Fig. 5 shows the resulting pattern of the light rays; in this Figure the eye of the user is designated by reference numeral 103, while lines 108, 109, 110 and 111 designate the reflected rays corresponding to the incident rays 108', 109', 110' and 111'.

Ihe associated angles of incidence and reflecting angles which are equal are designated by aa and AA (rays 108' and 108), bb and BB (rays 109' and 109), cc and CC (rays 110t and 110) and dd and DD (rays 111' and 111), respectively. Angle FF indicated in the Figure is the angle formed between the base of the wedge-shaped accessory 2d and the reflecting surface of the latter.

Dotted line 111" represents the incident ray which would correspond to the reflected ray 111 if accessory 2d was not affixed to mirror plate 1; this condition results from the fact that incident angle ee of the theoretical incident ray 111" is equal to reflecting angle EE of reflecting ray 111 in the absence of accessory 2d. However, because of the accessory 2d, the view direction 111 (reflected ray) corresponds to incident ray 111' received by accessory 2d. Indeed the Figure shows that the angles corresponding, respectively, to these rays, i.e. angle dd formed between the inclined reflecting surface of the accessory 2d (angle of incidence) and the incident ray, on the one hand, and angle DD formed between the inclined reflecting surface and the reflected ray, on the other hand, are equal to each other.

Fig. 5 shows that the field of view of the rearview mirror unit, which is symbolized by line 105, is substantially enlarged toward the lefthand side due to the provision of the accessory 2d, as compared to the field of view which would result in the absence of accessory 2d, which latter field of view is represented by line 106. It may be noted that the embodiment according to Fig. 5 has a drawback, in that a so-called "blind angle" is created between the left-hand border of the reflected image provided by the exposed portion of the reflecting surface of mirror plate 1 and the right-hand border of the reflected image provided by the reflecting, surface of accessory 2d; this "blind angle" corresponds approximately to angle G indicated in Fig. 5, i.e. the angle formed between lines (or incident rays) 109' and 110'. Nevertheless the embodiment of Fig. 5 -- unlike the embodiments shown in Figs. 1 to 3 - has the advantage that the supplementary portion of the field of view obtained (and represented in Fig. 5) on the lefthand side) is actually perceived by the eye 103 of the user on the left-hand side, while in the embodiment of Figs. 1 and 2 the user perceives on the left-hand side the supplementary field of view located in fact on the right-hand side due to the provision of the accessory according to the invention. In the embodiment according to Fig. 3 the user similarly perceives on the left-hand side the supplementary view angle provided in fact on the right-hand side of the field of view by the left-hand accessory 2b, while he perceives on the right-hand side the supplementary view angle of the field of view provided in reality on the left side by accessory 2c. In practice the user may easily choose the embodiment which is most convenient.

Fig. 6 shows an advantageous embodiment in which the accessory is a wedge-shaped mirrorpiece 2 having a base surface 14 and a reflecting surface, or mirror surface 15, inclined at a predetermined angle with respect to the base surface; surfaces 14 and 15 being substantially planar. A layer of adhesive material 7 is applied onto the base surface 14, enabling not only a manufacturer of a rear-view mirror, but also any user, easily to fix the wedgeshaped mirror piece in a convenient location and onto a conventional planar rear-view mirror plate.

An accessory according to the present invention may be mounted not only adjacent to one or both of the lateral edges of a mirror-plate such as 1, but may also be fixed, if desired, adjacent to one or both of the longitudinal edges of such mirror plate. A person skilled in the art, or the user, can decide for himself the best location of the accessory on the planar mirror plate, the number of such accessories needed, the angle formed between the base surface and the reflecting surface of each accessory, and the required dimensions of the accessory, or accessories, depending upon the intended application.

It should also be noted that the layer 7 of adhesive material shown in Fig. 6 and described above may be replaced by any other convenient fixing means, such as, for instance, clamp-like elements, or the like, which may be used separately or as part of the accessory.

WHAT I CLAIM IS: 1. An accessory adapted to be fixed onto a rear-view mirror, and comprising a mirror piece having a substantially planar base surface and a substantially planar reflecting surface inclined at a predetermined angle with respect to the base surface, and fixing means for fixing the mirror piece onto the reflecting surface of the rear-view mirror.

2. An accessory according to claim 1 and adapted to be fixed onto a rear-view mirror having a substantially planar reflecting surface.

3. An accessory according to claim 1 or claim 2 wherein the fixing means comprise a layer of adhesive material applied onto the base surface of the mirror piece.

4. An accessory according to claim 1 or claim 2 wherein the fixing means comprise mechanical fixing means such as clamp-like elements.

5. A rear-view mirror unit comprising a rearview mirror having a substantial planar reflecting surface and an accessory according to any of claims 1 to 4, wherein the accessory is fixed onto the mirror by the fixing means such that the base surface of the accessory is applied to the planar reflecting surface of the mirror with the reflecting surface of the access orv inclined towards the reflecting surface of

**WARNING** end of DESC field may overlap start of CLMS **.

Claims

**WARNING** start of CLMS field may overlap end of DESC **. Ihe associated angles of incidence and reflecting angles which are equal are designated by aa and AA (rays 108' and 108), bb and BB (rays 109' and 109), cc and CC (rays 110t and 110) and dd and DD (rays 111' and 111), respectively. Angle FF indicated in the Figure is the angle formed between the base of the wedge-shaped accessory 2d and the reflecting surface of the latter. Dotted line 111" represents the incident ray which would correspond to the reflected ray 111 if accessory 2d was not affixed to mirror plate 1; this condition results from the fact that incident angle ee of the theoretical incident ray 111" is equal to reflecting angle EE of reflecting ray 111 in the absence of accessory 2d. However, because of the accessory 2d, the view direction 111 (reflected ray) corresponds to incident ray 111' received by accessory 2d. Indeed the Figure shows that the angles corresponding, respectively, to these rays, i.e. angle dd formed between the inclined reflecting surface of the accessory 2d (angle of incidence) and the incident ray, on the one hand, and angle DD formed between the inclined reflecting surface and the reflected ray, on the other hand, are equal to each other. Fig. 5 shows that the field of view of the rearview mirror unit, which is symbolized by line 105, is substantially enlarged toward the lefthand side due to the provision of the accessory 2d, as compared to the field of view which would result in the absence of accessory 2d, which latter field of view is represented by line 106. It may be noted that the embodiment according to Fig. 5 has a drawback, in that a so-called "blind angle" is created between the left-hand border of the reflected image provided by the exposed portion of the reflecting surface of mirror plate 1 and the right-hand border of the reflected image provided by the reflecting, surface of accessory 2d; this "blind angle" corresponds approximately to angle G indicated in Fig. 5, i.e. the angle formed between lines (or incident rays) 109' and 110'. Nevertheless the embodiment of Fig. 5 -- unlike the embodiments shown in Figs. 1 to 3 - has the advantage that the supplementary portion of the field of view obtained (and represented in Fig. 5) on the lefthand side) is actually perceived by the eye 103 of the user on the left-hand side, while in the embodiment of Figs. 1 and 2 the user perceives on the left-hand side the supplementary field of view located in fact on the right-hand side due to the provision of the accessory according to the invention. In the embodiment according to Fig. 3 the user similarly perceives on the left-hand side the supplementary view angle provided in fact on the right-hand side of the field of view by the left-hand accessory 2b, while he perceives on the right-hand side the supplementary view angle of the field of view provided in reality on the left side by accessory 2c. In practice the user may easily choose the embodiment which is most convenient. Fig. 6 shows an advantageous embodiment in which the accessory is a wedge-shaped mirrorpiece 2 having a base surface 14 and a reflecting surface, or mirror surface 15, inclined at a predetermined angle with respect to the base surface; surfaces 14 and 15 being substantially planar. A layer of adhesive material 7 is applied onto the base surface 14, enabling not only a manufacturer of a rear-view mirror, but also any user, easily to fix the wedgeshaped mirror piece in a convenient location and onto a conventional planar rear-view mirror plate. An accessory according to the present invention may be mounted not only adjacent to one or both of the lateral edges of a mirror-plate such as 1, but may also be fixed, if desired, adjacent to one or both of the longitudinal edges of such mirror plate. A person skilled in the art, or the user, can decide for himself the best location of the accessory on the planar mirror plate, the number of such accessories needed, the angle formed between the base surface and the reflecting surface of each accessory, and the required dimensions of the accessory, or accessories, depending upon the intended application. It should also be noted that the layer 7 of adhesive material shown in Fig. 6 and described above may be replaced by any other convenient fixing means, such as, for instance, clamp-like elements, or the like, which may be used separately or as part of the accessory. WHAT I CLAIM IS:

1. An accessory adapted to be fixed onto a rear-view mirror, and comprising a mirror piece having a substantially planar base surface and a substantially planar reflecting surface inclined at a predetermined angle with respect to the base surface, and fixing means for fixing the mirror piece onto the reflecting surface of the rear-view mirror.

the mirror in the direction in which the view range of the rear-view mirror unit is to be enlarged.

6. A rear-view mirror unit according to claim 5, wherein at least one accessory extends from at least one of the edges of the mirror over a predetermined portion of the reflecting surface of the latter.

7. A rear-view mirror unit according to claim 5, wherein at least two accessories are provided, each extending from an associated edge of the mirror over a predetermined portion of the reflecting surface of the latter.

8. An accessory adapted to be fixed to a rear view mirror, and constructed and arranged substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

9. A rear view mirror unit constructed and arranged substantially as herenbefore described with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.