Patent ID: 8223203

Claim:
A camera for mounting in a motor vehicle, the camera comprising: a substrate; an imaging unit provided on the substrate, the imaging unit having an optical axis in a direction perpendicular to the substrate surface; a processing circuit for processing an image acquired by the imaging unit; a lens disposed on the optical axis; a mirror provided on the optical axis of the imaging unit in order to change a direction of the optical axis to a frontward direction of the vehicle; and an attachment for retaining the mirror; wherein the camera is disposed on a windshield of the vehicle; the imaging unit, the lens, and the mirror are disposed on the optical axis of the imaging unit in this order from the windshield of the vehicle; the imaging unit and the processing circuit are disposed on the same surface of the substrate; the substrate is disposed in parallel with the windshield of the vehicle; the mirror is disposed in a part of a field angle of the lens; the attachment provides a hole close to a mirror-retaining section and in another part of the field angle of the lens; and the camera is adapted to obtain both interior visual information of the vehicle from the hole and exterior visual information of the vehicle from the mirror.