Patent ID: 7322709

Claim:
A rear view side-mirror-controlling apparatus comprising: direction-changing means for driving mirrors included in left and right rear view side-mirror units of a vehicle so as to change orientations of mirror surfaces of the mirrors; and controlling means for controlling the direction-changing means, wherein the controlling means detects an operation performed by a driver of the vehicle when the driver tries to change lanes or turn left or right, and controls the direction-changing means such that the mirror surface of at least one of the mirrors is put into an outward-facing state in which the mirror surface faces outward, away from the vehicle, compared to a basic state when the controlling means detects an operation performed by said driver, wherein the rear view side-mirror unit includes a shell, the mirror disposed at a rear side of the shell with respect to the vehicle, a DC motor disposed in the shell, and an actuator assembly disposed in the shell and driven by the DC motor, wherein the mirror is attached to the actuator assembly at a rear side thereof, with respect to the vehicle, wherein a rotational angle of the mirror is changed according to a rotation amount of the DC motor, wherein the controlling means comprises a rotational angle detector circuit and a microprocessor unit, wherein the rotational angle detector circuit calculates the rotational angle of the mirror, and sends the calculated rotational angle of the mirror to the microprocessor unit, and wherein the microprocessor unit, based on the rotational angle of the mirror, controls the DC motor to rotate until the rotation angle of the mirror reaches a predetermined angle.