Patent ID: 7230523

Claim:
A rear view display apparatus for a vehicle comprising: a housing mounted on or near a windshield of the vehicle and having an opening facing into a passenger compartment of the vehicle; a one-way mirror captured in the opening of said housing so that a scene rearward of the vehicle is reflected to a driver of the vehicle by said one-way mirror; a video display device substantially equivalent in size and aspect ratio to said one-way mirror, and disposed in said housing immediately behind said one-way mirror so that when said video display device is activated to display a video image, the driver sees said video image through said one-way mirror; an imaging device mounted on a rear portion of the vehicle to produce video image signals responsive to said scene rearward of the vehicle; and control apparatus for receiving the video image signals produced by said imaging device and selectively activating said video display device based on the received video image signals to display a video image of said scene rearward of the vehicle having a field-of-view that matches a field-of-view provided to the driver by said one-way mirror.