Patent Publication Number: US-2020298763-A1

Title: Vehicle rearview mirror

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention is a rearview mirror for general vehicles. 
     2. Description of the Related Art 
     A blind spot monitoring system detects objects around the body of a vehicle by a detector installed on the body of the vehicle. When the detector detects an object such as another vehicle, the driver is alerted through vision, hearing or vibration, which aids the driver to compensate the visual blind spots of vehicle to ensure driving safety. 
     In the conventional art, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 9,227,557 B2 describes a vehicle rearview mirror with an indicate function. Referring to  FIG. 2  of the aforementioned patent, it is noted that the mirror surface  20  is provided with a light-transmissive zone  21  and an indicator device  30  is disposed behind the mirror surface  20 . The indicator device  30  includes a reflection base  31  and light emitting members  32 . The light emitting members  32  face a reflecting surface  311  of the reflection base  31 , so that the light emitted by the light emitting members  32  is reflected by the reflecting surface  311  to the light-transmissive zone  21  to instruct the user. 
     However, the conventional indicator device  30  of the rearview mirror usually uses LEDS (light emitting diodes) as the light emitting members  32 , and the LEDS are linear light sources only applicable to a small-area light-transmissive zone  21  as described in the above-mentioned patent, but inapplicable to a light-transmissive zone with a large area or a customized pattern, thereby limited in usage and still improvable. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     It is one of the objectives of the present invention to make an improvement aimed at the defects of the conventional rearview mirrors so as to provide an improved vehicle rearview mirror which can show a customized pattern with a larger area. 
     A vehicle rearview mirror according to an embodiment of the present invention is provided to include a reflector and a light emitting module. The reflector has a back surface provided with a light-transmissive pattern for alerting or instructing the driver. The light emitting module is disposed behind the reflector and includes a reflection base, a light source and a lens. The reflection base is hollow-shaped and provided on the inner wall thereof with a plurality of reflecting surfaces. The reflection base has an opening. The inside and the outside of the reflection base communicates with each other through the opening. The reflecting surfaces gradually tilt one after another from bottom to top and face the opening. The lens is mounted to the reflection base and covers the opening. The lens has an inside surface and an outside surface opposite to the inside surface. The inside surface is a matt surface. The outside surface faces the light-transmissive pattern. The light source is disposed on the reflection base and faces the reflecting surfaces. 
     Through the structural design of the above-described rearview mirror, the light emitted by the light source is reflected to the lens by the above-mentioned plurality of reflecting surfaces gradually tilting one after another. Then, through the matt design of the inside surface of the lens, the light reflected to the lens is uniformly diffused to the entire outside surface, so that the light emitting module emits a large-area light. In other words, the whole light emitting module can be regarded as a surface light source, thereby applicable to various light-transmissive patterns with large area and customized design, enabling the rearview mirror to show the above-mentioned light-transmissive pattern. 
     In one of the aspects, the rearview mirror may be a rear-view mirror inside the vehicle or a side-view mirror outside the vehicle. 
     In another aspect, the outside surface of the lens is a smooth surface. 
     In another aspect, the light source may include an LED array and the light source is fixed in the reflection base. 
     In another aspect, each of the reflecting surfaces is a curved surface, which may be designed in a way that the LEDS in the LED array face different reflecting surfaces to make the light reflected to the lens relatively more uniform. 
     In another aspect, the lens may include light diffusing agent therein to increase the diffusivity of the light projected from the lens. 
     In another aspect, for making the light emitting module stably fixed to the reflector and face the light-transmissive pattern, the light emitting module may be directly connected to the back surface of the reflector. In an alternative, the reflection base may be provided on the outer surface thereof with a bump in a way that the light emitting module can be directly connected to the back surface of the reflector by the bump. 
     In another aspect, each of the reflecting surfaces is a smooth curved surface formed by coating. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The detailed structure, features and assembly or usage manners of the vehicle rearview mirror of the present invention will be specified in a following embodiment, but it should be understood that the following embodiment and the accompanying drawings are given for illustration only, not limitative of the claimed scope of the present invention, and wherein: 
         FIG. 1  is a perspective view of a vehicle rearview mirror of the embodiment; 
         FIG. 2  is approximately a side view of  FIG. 1 , but doesn&#39;t show a mirror mount of the rearview mirror; 
         FIG. 3  is an exploded perspective view of a light emitting module of the embodiment; 
         FIG. 4  is a sectional view of the light emitting module of the embodiment; and 
         FIG. 5  is a block diagram showing the operation of a blind spot monitoring system of the embodiment. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     The technology and features of the present invention will be specified in a following embodiment and the appendix drawings. The directional terms mentioned in the contents of the specification, such as ‘above’, ‘below’, ‘inside’, ‘outside’, ‘top’ and ‘bottom’, are just for illustrative description on the basis of normal usage direction, not intended to limit the claimed scope. 
     For specifying the technical features of the present invention, a following embodiment and the appendix drawings are given here under. This embodiment takes a side-view mirror outside the vehicle as an illustrative example of the rearview mirror of the present invention. 
     As shown in  FIGS. 1-2 , a rearview mirror  10  includes a reflector  20 , a light emitting module  30  and a mirror mount  40 , wherein the reflector  20  is a mirror mounted to the mirror mount  40  and the light emitting module  30  is disposed inside the mirror mount  40 . 
     The reflector  20  is adapted to show objects located around the vehicle and provided on a back surface  21  thereof with a cladding layer of aluminum or chromium for reflecting function. The cladding layer is usually very thin, thereby not illustrated in  FIG. 2 . Besides, the cladding layer is engraved with a light-transmissive pattern  22  by laser engraving, which is provided at a proper position on the back of the reflector  20 , such as the position relatively far away from a connecting member  41  of the mirror mount  40  as shown in this embodiment, so that light can be transmitted through the light-transmissive pattern  22  from the back surface  21  of the reflector  20  to the front surface  23  of the reflector  20  to show the light-transmissive pattern  22 . 
     Referring to  FIGS. 2-4 , the light emitting module  30  includes a reflection base  31 , a light source  32  and a lens  33 . The reflection base  31  is hollow-shaped and has an accommodating room  311  and an opening  312 . The accommodating room  311  communicates with the outside of the light emitting module  30  through the opening  312 . The reflection base  31  is provided on the inner wall thereof with four reflection surfaces  313  and an installation surface  314 . The reflecting surfaces  313  gradually tilt one after another from bottom to top and face the opening  312  at different angles. The reflection surfaces  313  included in the inner wall of the reflection base  31  are all smooth curved surfaces formed by coating for reflecting light. Besides, the reflection base  31  is provided on the outer surface thereof with two bumps  315  in a way that the light emitting module  30  can be disposed behind the reflector  20  by the bumps  315 . Only one of the bumps  315  is shown in  FIGS. 2 and 3 . The lens  33  is made of acrylic and includes light diffusing agent therein for increasing the light diffusivity of the lens  33 . The lens  33  is fixed to the reflection base  31  by ultrasonic welding (or gluing) and covers the opening  312 . The lens  33  has an inside surface  331  and an outside surface  332  opposite to the inside surface  331 . The inside surface  331  is a matt surface. The outside surface  332  is a smooth surface, which is closely taped to the back surface  21  of the reflector  20  and faces the light-transmissive pattern  22 . The light source  32  in this embodiment uses LED, which includes an LED array  321  fixed on a substrate  322  by integrated circuit packaging. The light source  32  is fixed on the installation surface  314  in the accommodating room  311  and faces the reflecting surfaces  313 . The LED array  321  can be controlled to emit light in a way that the light emitted by the light source  32  is reflected by the reflecting surfaces  313  to the inside surface  331  of the lens  33 , thereby projected to the outside of the light emitting module  30  from the lens  33  and projected to the outside of the reflector  20  through the light-transmissive pattern  22  to show the light-transmissive pattern  22 . 
     Referring to  FIGS. 4 and 5 , through the structural design of the above-described rearview mirror  10 , when a detector  71  of a blind spot monitoring system  7  of the vehicle detects another vehicle  8  (or a pedestrian) around the vehicle, the blind spot monitoring system  7  activates the light source  32  to emit light, so that the light emitted by the light source  32  is reflected by the above-mentioned plurality of reflecting surfaces  313  gradually tilting one after another to be projected uniformly to the lens  33 . Then, through the matt design of the inside surface  331  of the lens  33  and the auxiliary function of the light diffusing agent, the light reflected to the lens  33  is uniformly diffused, so that the light emitting module  30  is capable of emitting a large-area light to the light-transmissive pattern  22  to show the light-transmissive pattern  22  to alert the driver for ensuring the driving safety. 
     It should be mentioned that in this embodiment the light emitting module  30  is adapted to project a large-area light, so that the whole light emitting module  30  can be regarded as a surface light source, thereby capable of illuminating and showing various light-transmissive patterns  22  with large area and different customized designs. 
     The above description is only an instanced embodiment of the present invention, and all equivalent changes and modifications made in accordance with the following claims should be included within the scope of the present invention.