US 5,793,308 · Granted 1998-08-11
The Mirror That Sees Behind Your Car: 1990s Backup Camera Pioneer
Imagine a rearview mirror that's actually a video screen showing you what's behind your car—and it can even measure how far away obstacles are. This 1998 patent describes exactly that: a mirror-shaped display that combines video feeds from cameras around the vehicle with distance measurements, all controlled by the driver.
The plain-English version
What it protects
The claim covers an integrated mirror-shaped video display system that receives video signals from multiple camera positions on a vehicle and displays them on a screen built into the mirror housing. What's protected is the combination of the mirror form factor, the ability to switch between different camera views (strobed by the driver), and the overlay of alpha-numeric distance data on top of the video feed—showing how far away objects are in real time.
Why it matters
This patent staked out early territory in backup camera and surround-view technology, decades before such systems became standard in cars. By embedding the display in the mirror itself rather than as a separate screen, the inventor created a compact, integrated solution that preserved the mirror's familiar form while adding powerful safety information. The combination of video plus distance measurement was novel enough to warrant protection during a time when most vehicles relied solely on mirrors and driver intuition.
Real-world use
Today's backup cameras and parking-assist displays in many vehicles echo this design—when you shift into reverse and a video feed appears on your dash or mirror, you're seeing the spiritual descendant of this 1998 invention.
Original USPTO abstract
A vehicular position monitoring system includes an integral mirror video display. The display is capable of showing various fields of vision from various parts of the vehicle and can be strobed by the vehicle operator. The position monitoring system can be combined with a distance measurement system so that alpha-numeric graphics of distance between a vehicle and an object behind the vehicle can be displayed with the video image of regions seen from various points on the vehicle.
Patent details
- Publication number
- US 5,793,308
- Filing date
- 1994-04-12
- Grant date
- 1998-08-11
- Assignee
- Sensorvision Technologies, L.L.C.
- Inventor(s)
- ROSINSKI; ALBIN, WISNIEWSKI; JOSEPH, GAUTHIER; DALE R.
- CPC class
- G01S15/931
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