Patent ID: 7453057

Claim:
A rearview mirror system for a vehicle, said rearview mirror system comprising: a variable reflectance transflective electro-optic reflective element, said transflective reflective element comprising a mirror reflector that partially reflects light incident thereon and that partially transmits light incident thereon; an ambient light sensor operable to sense ambient light; a glare light sensor operable to sense glare-producing light incident at or near said reflective element; wherein said ambient light sensor comprises a silicon photo sensor and wherein said glare light sensor comprises a silicon photo sensor; a video display screen disposed behind said transflective electro-optic reflective element and operable to display video information through said reflective element and viewable through said mirror reflector of said transflective electro-optic reflective element by a driver of the vehicle when said video display screen is activated, and substantially non-viewable by the driver of the vehicle when said video display screen is not activated; a display intensity control for adjusting a display intensity of said video display screen, said display intensity control adjusting the display intensity responsive to a brightness level of the scene sensed by at least one of said glare light sensor and said ambient light sensor, said video display screen having an operating range comprising a display intensity, as viewed by the driver of the vehicle when viewing said reflective element assembly as normally mounted in the vehicle, between zero candelas/square meter when said video display screen is not activated, and at least 400 candelas/square meter when said video display screen is activated; and wherein said display intensity adjustment is a function of at least one of (a) an ambient light level and (b) a glare light level representative of light impinging a rearward facing surface of said reflective element.