Patent ID: 6542182
Filing Date: 2003-04-01
Classification: B60R,H04N

Abstract:
A system for displaying an area outside a normal viewing area to a vehicle driver, the system comprising:a self-powered, mobile camera unit including a camera for generating images of objects, a camera control unit for controlling the camera, a camera transceiver unit coupled to the camera control unit for wirelessly transmitting the images and a first plurality of docking connectors coupled to the camera control unit; a vehicle transceiver unit for wirelessly receiving the transmitted images; a vehicle control unit coupled to the vehicle transceiver unit; a display coupled to the vehicle control unit for displaying the received images inside the normal viewing area of the vehicle driver; and a second plurality of docking connectors removably interconnected, both physically and electrically, to the first plurality of docking connectors at a docking station and coupled to the vehicle control unit wherein the first and second plurality of docking connectors couple camera control signals from the vehicle control unit to the camera control unit when the first and second plurality of docking connectors are physically and electrically interconnected and wherein the camera control signals are wirelessly transmitted by the vehicle transceiver unit and wirelessly received by the camera transceiver unit when the camera unit is removed from the docking station.