Patent ID: 7110570

Claim:
An imaging system for a vehicle, the imaging system comprising: an illuminator for illuminating a predefined field located outside of the vehicle and adjacent an entryway to an interior of the vehicle; a detector for detecting radiation reflected from a person located in the predefined field, the detector being responsive to the detected radiation for providing image signals; and a processor that is responsive to the image signals from the detector, the processor including face recognition software for analyzing the image signals for facial features of the person located in the predefined field, the processor comparing facial features of the person to known facial features of authorized vehicle occupants to determine whether the person is an authorized vehicle occupant, the processor causing the entryway to automatically become unlocked in response to a determination that the person is an authorized vehicle occupant, wherein the illuminator is also adapted to illuminate a predefined interior vehicle field and the detector is adapted to detect radiation reflected from an occupant of the vehicle that is located in the predefined vehicle interior field and to providing occupant image signals, the processor comparing facial features of the occupant image signals to the known facial features of authorized vehicle occupants and causing a vehicle operation to be performed in response to a facial feature match.