US 6,717,610 · Granted 2004-04-06
The Curved Mirror That Gave Cars Their Superhero Vision
Imagine a specially curved mirror that lets your car see in a super-wide angle without making everything look warped and weird. This patent describes a smart two-mirror system that bounces light off a specially shaped curved surface, then a flat mirror, so you can see way more of what's around your vehicle without the normal fish-eye distortion.
The plain-English version
What it protects
The claim covers a compact wide-angle imaging system that uses a convex aspheric reflective surface paired with a flat mirrored surface, both integrated into a vehicle panel. What's protected here is the specific geometry and arrangement of these mirrors that allows them to capture an expanded field of view while minimizing image distortion, especially in the areas closest to the vehicle where accuracy matters most for driver safety.
Why it matters
Before this patent, car cameras and mirrors that showed a wide field of view produced heavily distorted images that were hard for drivers to interpret accurately. By designing mirrors that bend light in a way that keeps the critical zones near the vehicle clear and undistorted, Donnelly created a safer, more practical solution. This kind of innovation underpins modern backup cameras, 360-degree parking systems, and blind-spot monitoring — features that have become standard safety equipment on modern vehicles.
Real-world use
Every time a driver glances at a modern backup camera display or uses a car's surround-view parking system, they're likely looking at an image processed through a mirror arrangement similar to this one, allowing them to see obstacles and curbs that would otherwise be hidden.
Original USPTO abstract
A wide-angle image capture system for providing a wide-angle field of view of an area immediately exteriorly of a vehicle. The system includes a convex aspheric, asymmetric reflective surface which reflects an image toward an image capture device, via a substantially flat mirrored surface, both of which are compactly packaged within a panel of the vehicle. The shape of the convex reflector provides a reflected image that has a minimal amount of distortion in critical areas of the image immediately adjacent to the vehicle, so that additional processing of the image prior to it being displayed to a vehicle operator is minimized.
Patent details
- Publication number
- US 6,717,610
- Filing date
- 1998-11-25
- Grant date
- 2004-04-06
- Assignee
- Donnelly Corporation
- Inventor(s)
- BOS BRENT J., SCHOFIELD KENNETH, LARSON MARK L.
- CPC class
- B60R1/26
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