Patent ID: 7274501

Claim:
A mirror assembly for a vehicle, said mirror assembly comprising: a mirror element comprising at least one substrate having a forward surface facing towards a viewer of the mirror assembly and a rearward surface facing away from a viewer of the mirror assembly, said mirror element comprising at least one substantially reflective metallic layer sandwiched between a respective pair of substantially transparent non-metallic layers, each of said substantially transparent non-metallic layers and said substantially reflective metallic layer having a selected refractive index and a selected physical thickness such that said mirror element is selectively spectrally tuned to substantially transmit at least one preselected spectral band of radiant energy therethrough while substantially reflecting other radiant energy, wherein said at least one preselected spectral band comprises a preselected band of near infrared radiant energy; a radiant energy emitting element at or near said rearward surface of said at least one substrate, said radiant energy emitting element being operable to emit radiant energy towards said rearward surface and through said mirror element, said radiant energy emitting element being operable to emit near infrared radiant energy with a peak intensity within said preselected spectral band of near infrared radiant energy; an imaging sensor at or near said rearward surface, said imaging sensor being sensitive to near infrared radiant energy in the range of approximately 750 nm to approximately 1100 nm.