U.S. patent application number 12/823861 was filed with the patent office on 2010-12-09 for anti-glare vehicular mirror.
This patent application is currently assigned to ROSCO, INC.. Invention is credited to Benjamin Englander.
Application Number | 20100309557 12/823861 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 25046484 |
Filed Date | 2010-12-09 |
United States Patent
Application |
20100309557 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Englander; Benjamin |
December 9, 2010 |
ANTI-GLARE VEHICULAR MIRROR
Abstract
A mirror element for a school bus is mounted to the front to
provide wide angle viewing of the ground in front of and to the
side of the bus. An upper portion of the mirror element which is
generally dome shaped is treated to reduce glare resulting from
possible sun rays reflected in the direction of the bus driver.
Inventors: |
Englander; Benjamin;
(Woodmere, NY) |
Correspondence
Address: |
WILMERHALE/NEW YORK
399 PARK AVENUE
NEW YORK
NY
10022
US
|
Assignee: |
ROSCO, INC.
JAMAICA
NY
|
Family ID: |
25046484 |
Appl. No.: |
12/823861 |
Filed: |
June 25, 2010 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
|
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09757130 |
Jan 9, 2001 |
7771060 |
|
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12823861 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
359/603 |
Current CPC
Class: |
B60R 1/002 20130101;
B60R 1/082 20130101; B60R 1/0605 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
359/603 |
International
Class: |
B60R 1/08 20060101
B60R001/08 |
Claims
1-8. (canceled)
9. A cross-view vehicle mirror assembly, comprising: a mirror mount
mountable to a vehicle; a mirror element connectable to said mirror
mount and having a contoured outer mirror surface comprising a
convex, generally dome shaped mirror surface and having an upper
area and a lower area, said upper area capable of reflecting images
located above said lower area, and said contoured outer mirror
surface facing in a direction toward the vehicle to which said
mirror element is mounted; and an antiglare material treated on
said upper area of said mirror surface to reduce glare from sun
rays emanating at least from a direction in front of a driver of
the vehicle from the front or sides of the vehicle while darkening
an image reflected thereby, and wherein said lower area of said
mirror element is free of antiglare material.
10. The mirror assembly of claim 9, wherein said mirror element is
directly connectable to said mirror mount.
11. The mirror assembly of claim 9, wherein said upper area of said
mirror surface on which said antiglare material is treated
comprises about one-third of said mirror surface.
12. The mirror assembly of claim 9, wherein said upper area of said
mirror surface on which said antiglare material is treated
comprises less than one-third of said mirror surface.
13. The mirror assembly of claim 9, wherein said mirror surface
comprises a peripheral edge, and wherein said antiglare material is
treated on said upper area in spaced relation to and not in contact
with any portion of said peripheral edge of said mirror
surface.
14. The mirror assembly of claim 9, wherein said antiglare material
is treated on said upper area of said mirror surface with a
chroming process.
15. The mirror assembly of claim 9, wherein said mirror surface is
oval shaped.
16. The mirror assembly of claim 15, wherein said oval shaped
mirror surface has associated therewith a minor axis and a major
axis, and wherein said upper area on which said antiglare material
is treated is located in an upper portion of said mirror surface
relative to the major axis of said mirror surface.
17. A cross-view mirror for a vehicle, comprising: a mirror element
comprising a convex mirror surface having an upper area and a lower
area, said upper area capable of reflecting images located above
said lower area, and said mirror surface facing in a direction
toward the vehicle; and an antiglare material treated on said upper
area of said mirror surface darkening an image reflected thereby,
and wherein said lower area of said mirror surface is free of
antiglare material.
18. The cross-view mirror of claim 17, wherein said upper area of
said mirror surface on which said antiglare material is treated
comprises about one-third of said mirror surface.
19. The cross-view mirror of claim 17, wherein said upper area of
said mirror surface on which said antiglare material is treated
comprises less than one-third of said mirror surface.
20. The cross-view mirror of claim 17, wherein said mirror surface
comprises a peripheral edge, and wherein said antiglare material is
treated on said upper area in spaced relation to and not in contact
with any portion of said peripheral edge of said mirror
surface.
21. The cross-view mirror of claim 17, wherein said antiglare
material is treated on said upper area of said mirror surface with
a chroming process.
22. The cross-view mirror of claim 17, wherein said mirror surface
is oval shaped.
23. The cross-view mirror of claim 22, wherein said oval shaped
mirror surface has associated therewith a minor axis and a major
axis, and wherein said upper area on which said antiglare material
is treated is located in an upper portion of said mirror surface
relative to the major axis of said mirror surface.
24. A cross-view, school bus mirror assembly, comprising: a mirror
element having a contoured outer surface, said mirror surface
shaped to provide a wide angle field of view of a predetermined
scene, which said view extends both in a horizontal direction and
in a vertical direction along a front and at least one side of a
school bus, said scene including images of both said front and said
at least one side of said school bus; a mirror pole; the mirror
element being affixed to the mirror pole and the contoured outer
surface of the mirror element being used to provide the wide angle
field of view of said predetermined scene to a driver of said
school bus, while said driver drives said school bus; a mirror
mount for connecting the mirror pole to a front fender of said
school bus; and the contoured outer surface of the mirror element
being a convex, generally dome shaped and contiguous mirror surface
surrounded by a peripheral edge, the outer mirror surface
proceeding in said vertical direction from an uppermost position to
a lowermost vertical position and facing toward the driver of said
school bus to which the mirror element is mounted, a portion of the
outer surface, which comprises less than one-half of the surface
taken in the vertical direction, beginning from a position spaced
from the uppermost position on the contoured mirror surface and
ending above a straight notional line which bisects the mirror
surface in the horizontal direction, being treated with and
comprising an antiglare material which reduces glare, including
from sun rays, without rendering the treated surface opaque as to
be non-reflective, the outer surface of the mirror element thereby
comprising the treated surface and a non-treated surface, whereby
the mirror surface enables the driver to simultaneously observe a
first part of the scene at the treated surface and a second part of
the scene at the non-treated surface; wherein the portion treated
to reduce glare is located in spaced relation to and not in contact
with any portion of the peripheral edge of the mirror surface.
25. A cross-view, school bus or vehicle mirror assembly,
comprising: a mirror pole; a mirror mount for connecting said
mirror pole to a front fender of a school bus or vehicle; a mirror
element affixed to said mirror pole and having a contoured outer
mirror surface comprising a convex, generally dome shaped mirror
surface having a peripheral edge and having an upper area capable
of reflecting images located above a bottom half portion of the
mirror element, and the contoured outer mirror surface facing
toward the school bus or vehicle to which the mirror element is
mounted, and the contoured outer mirror surface of the mirror
element facing toward a driver of the school bus or vehicle; and an
antiglare material treated on the upper area of the dome shaped
mirror surface above a bottom half of said contoured outer mirror
surface of said mirror element to reduce glare from sun rays
emanating at least from a direction in front of the driver from the
front or sides of the school bus or vehicle with respect to a first
image portion located above the bottom half portion of the mirror
element while darkening the first image portion reflected thereby,
wherein the bottom half portion of the mirror element is free of
antiglare material that reflects a second image portion without
darkening the second image portion; and wherein the portion of said
contoured outer mirror surface on which the antiglare material is
disposed and treated is located in spaced relation to and not in
contact with any part of the peripheral edge.
Description
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
[0001] This application is a continuation of U.S. patent
application Ser. No. 09/757,130, filed Jan. 9, 2001, which is
hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0002] The present invention relates to mirrors for school buses,
trucks, vans or any vehicle and, in particular, mirrors for school
buses which are mounted on the front of the buses and which are
glare resistant while still providing large fields of view.
[0003] For decades, it has been known to fit school buses with
mirrors mounted on the front fenders which provide very wide angle
fields of view, enabling the bus drivers to carefully monitor the
bus along the front and sides thereof. Providing such mirrors is
necessary as a matter of the safety of our children.
[0004] Typically, such mirrors are spherical or nearly spherical in
shape. Many are dome shaped, to achieve the wide field of view.
[0005] These mirrors are very well known in the art, as exemplified
by the 1933 U.S. Pat. No. 1,905,623 to Deitz. Similar mirrors are
also disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,436,372; 4,512,634; 5,005,963;
4,500,063; 4,938,578 and many other similar patents. The contents
of the aforesaid patents are incorporated by reference herein.
[0006] While the mirrors of the prior art achieve their intended
objectives of providing wide fields of view both in the horizontal
and vertical (azimuth) directions, there are certain drawbacks to
their use. Specifically, the inventor herein has determined that
the provision of wide fields of view along the azimuth direction
sometimes adversely affects the optimization of the operability of
the mirror system.
[0007] Other prior art, dealing with the subject matter of
vehicular mirrors and the subject of undesired light reflection,
includes U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,311,253, 1,811,823; 2,514,989; 2,881,655;
3,764,201; 4,822,157; 5,589,984, as well as WO 8503136 dated July
1985 and German Patent 2148022 dated March 1973. The contents of
the foregoing U.S. patents are incorporated by reference
herein.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0008] In accordance with the present invention, a portion of the
mirror's surface is treated to reduce or eliminate glare.
Specifically, in accordance with the present invention, the
mirror's surface is notionally divided along the azimuth vertical
direction into several zones. To obtain the maximal glare
reduction, the top one half portion of the mirror is treated for
reducing glare. Preferably, however, only the top one-third portion
is so treated, in order to minimize the surface area which shows a
darker or duller image due to the anti-glare treatment. Thus, an
image is still visible although in a darker which reduces possibly
disturbing or confusing glare.
[0009] The methods of fabricating and/or treating mirror surfaces
to reduce glare are well known in the art. For example, there are
non-glare coatings that can be applied to the mirror surface.
Another approach is to adhere a cellophane based thin membrane
shield or cover over a portion of the mirror surface. Still another
approach involves a chroming process to reduce glare. That is, a
chrome plating is applied on the front surface of the mirror
glass.
[0010] Other features and advantages of the present invention will
become apparent from the following description of the invention
which refers to the accompanying drawings.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0011] FIG. 1 is a perspective of a typical prior art wide angle
spherical mirror attached to a school bus.
[0012] FIGS. 2A, 2B and 2C show front views of several spherical
mirrors for school buses which have been treated to reduce
glare.
[0013] FIG. 3 is a cross-section along the line 3-3 in FIG. 2A.
[0014] FIG. 4 shows a further placement of anti-glare treated areas
on a oval shaped surface of a convex mirror.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION
[0015] With reference to FIG. 1, a mirror element 10 is affixed to
a mirror pole 12 which is in turn received in a mirror mount 14 by
which the mirror 10 is thus secured to the front fender 16 of a
school bus 18. The mirror element 10 is generally dome shaped (FIG.
3), but can have a variety of peripheral edge shapes, for example,
circular as shown in FIG. 2A, horizontally oval as shown in FIG. 2B
or vertically oval as shown in FIG. 2C. The depth of the dome
relative to the base 20 (FIG. 3) of the mirror 10 can be selected
to choose different angles of view, as is well known. Also, as is
known in the art, the mirror element 10 can have one field of view
in the horizontal direction (denoted by the arrows 22 in FIGS. 2A
and 2B) and a different angle of view in the vertical direction as
denoted by the arrows 24. The angle of view magnitude is determined
by the radius of curvature of the mirror surface in the horizontal
and vertical directions.
[0016] An occasional problem which has affected spherical mirrors
of the type indicated is the possibility of reflection of the sun
rays from the upper half of the mirror element as indicated by the
arrows 26 and 28 in FIG. 3 when the mirror is not optimally
mounted.
[0017] In accordance with the present invention, one can view the
mirror element of FIGS. 2A, 2B and 2C as having a surface which
extends vertically from a highest point at position 30 to a lowest
point at position 32. The sun rays reflection problem is solved by
treating a portion, specifically the upper portion of the mirror
surface with an anti-glare material, in any of the manners well
known in the art, as set forth in the summary of the invention
section of the present description.
[0018] With reference to FIG. 2A, in the broadest application of
the present invention, the treated surface encompasses that portion
of the mirror element surface 10 which begins at the uppermost
position 30 and continues to about halfway down the vertical
direction, to the line which is identified by reference numeral 34.
In a mirror element fabricated so that the upper one half portion
of the dome surface is treated for glare, the image in that portion
will be darkened because of the glare treatment. It is important
not to increase the portion treated with anti-glare material beyond
the bottom one half portion because the glare treatment reduces the
sharpness of the image and it is important that the lower half
mirror which points to the front of the bus where very young, short
children may be standing is not affected.
[0019] Preferably, however, it is sufficient for reduction of the
glare problem if only the top one third of the mirror surface is
treated with the anti-glare material. In this preferred embodiment,
only the surface above the curved line identified by reference
numeral 36 (in FIG. 2A) is covered with the anti-glare material.
Note that the line 36 is curved relative to the straight surface
bisecting line 22. In some embodiments, the portion treated to
reduce glare encompasses less than one-third of the mirror
surface.
[0020] In the foregoing description, the surface of the reflecting
mirror, which has been treated for reducing glare, always had a
portion which bordered the peripheral circumscribing edge of the
reflecting surface. The peripheral edge is the circumferential edge
50 of the reflecting surface. However, turning to FIG. 4, the
invention also encompasses applying onto the surface of the
reflecting mirror an island of anti-glare coating selected
specifically to deal with any location on the mirror surface from
which the undesired reflection may emanate. This area is shown in
FIG. 4, as area 52, but that area can be in any of the other
quadrants or may be larger than as shown or may straddle several
quadrants. The consideration is always to ensure that the area or
island that has been treated with anti glare material, is located
away from the peripheral edge 50 of the reflective surface. There
is a logical reason to proceed with the approach of FIG. 4. That is
because the image is rather smaller near the mirror edges, and one
would not want to miss the image of a child reflected near the
circumferential edge 50 of the mirror surface due to dulling of the
image. Also, it is perceived that one would typically not encounter
undesired reflection near the edges.
[0021] Although the present invention has been described in
relation to particular embodiments thereof, many other variations
and modifications and other uses will become apparent to those
skilled in the art. It is preferred, therefore, that the present
invention be limited not by the specific disclosure herein, but
only by the appended claims.
* * * * *