Most people tend to adjust their side view mirrors so that they can see the side of their own car and also what is being seen in the rear view mirror while sitting in the driver's seat. This alignment leaves two large blind spots on both sides of the car due to excessive overlapping. Although you can not totally eliminate blind spots with conventional mirrors, they can be minimized by adjusting them in such a way that the sides of the car are barely visible to the driver.
In a driver side mirror adjustably mounted on an exterior portion of a motor vehicle having a direction of travel, the mirror of the type having an upright axis perpendicular to the direction of travel of the vehicle, the mirror having the further optical characteristic improvement comprising: a continuously curved elliptical cross sectional shape for the mirror ranging from highest elliptical curvature extending from a mirror edge closest to the vehicle and smoothly continuously diminishing in elliptical curvature over the entire cross sectional shape all of the way to an edge of the mirror away from the vehicle; and a visible adjustment line on the mirror in the upright direction in the region of highest elliptical curvature defining a driver side view of the mirror and a traffic side view, with the mirror adjustably positioned relative to the vehicle such that the driver side view presents the driver side of the vehicle and the traffic side view presents an optical cone adjacent to the vehicle.
Each mirror has greater curvature toward the side closest to the vehicle and lesser curvature distal to the vehicle, with the alignment line being within one-eighth of an inch to three-quarters of an inch from the inward edge of the mirror closest to the vehicle. In operation, each side view mirror is oriented so that the side of the driven vehicle lies entirely on the side of the alignment line closest to the driver when viewed by the driver. In this manner, the cone of vision from the curved side view mirror will overlap with a cone of vision from the rear view mirror. Both the driver side view mirror and the passenger side view mirror have cones of vision which overlap with the cone of the rear view mirror.
The curved nature of the mirrors allows lateral compression of images, giving a sense of the lateral separation of an approaching vehicle.
The purpose of my invention is to turn the side view mirrors out in such a way that the vehicles in the adjacent lanes are in the peripheral vision before dropping out of the side view mirrors. To get the above result without having two blind spots directly adjacent to the sides of the car, the mirrors will have an oval cylindrical convexity, with minimal convexity on the outside and gradually increasing towards the side of the vehicle close to the driver, so that the portion of the maximum convexity will be overlapping with the rear view mirror. Please note by having a cylindrical convexity, the height of the approaching vehicles will remain the same, only the widths are slightly reduced, so that there is no visual distortion with respect to the distance of the following vehicles.
In this way, the approaching vehicles from the rear will be seen in the side-view mirrors before dropping out of the rear view mirror, and will be in the peripheral vision of the driver before leaving of the side-view mirrors.
An alignment system for side view mirrors featuring a mirror with regions of diverse curvature, with an upright alignment line in a region of greater curvature. The side view mirror is set up so that the side of a user's vehicle lies entirely on the side of the alignment line closest to the vehicle. This generates a cone of vision to the rear of the vehicle which overlaps with the cone of vision from a rear view mirror such that blind spots are greatly reduced or eliminated.
This patent is for sale. If you are interested in purchasing the patent, please contact the law office of Fisher/Broyles directly.