Patent ID: 7771060

Claim:
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 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.