Patent ID: 8106347

Claim:
An interior rearview mirror system for a vehicle, said interior rearview mirror system comprising: an interior rearview mirror assembly having a transflective electrochromic reflective element, said transflective electrochromic reflective element comprising a front substrate having a first surface and a second surface opposite said first surface and said transflective electrochromic reflective element comprising a rear substrate having a third surface and a fourth surface opposite said third surface, wherein said third surface of said rear substrate is closer to the driver of a vehicle than said fourth surface of said rear substrate when said interior rearview mirror assembly is mounted in a vehicle equipped with said interior rearview mirror system; wherein said transflective electrochromic reflective element comprises a mirror reflector that partially reflects light and that partially transmits light, wherein said mirror reflector is disposed at said third surface of said rear substrate and wherein a transparent electrically conductive layer is disposed at said second surface of said front substrate; wherein said transflective electrochromic reflective element comprises an electrochromic medium disposed between said second surface of said front substrate and said third surface of said rear substrate; wherein said interior rearview mirror assembly comprises an ambient light sensor operable to sense ambient light; wherein said interior rearview mirror assembly comprises a glare light sensor operable to sense glare light; wherein said interior rearview mirror assembly comprises a control operable to establish a reflectance level of said transflective electrochromic reflective element, wherein said control is responsive to light detection by at least one of said ambient light sensor and said glare light sensor; a backlit video screen disposed behind said transflective electrochromic reflective element and operable to display information through said mirror reflector of said transflective electrochromic reflective element and viewable through said mirror reflector of said transflective electrochromic reflective element by a driver of the vehicle when said backlit video screen is displaying information, and substantially non-viewable by the driver of the vehicle when said backlit video screen is not displaying information; a display intensity control for adjusting display intensity of said backlit video screen, said display intensity control adjusting display intensity responsive to a light detection by at least one of said glare light sensor and said ambient light sensor; and wherein display intensity of said backlit video screen is adjusted as a function of a ratio of a glare light value sensed by said glare light sensor to an ambient light value sensed by said ambient light sensor, and wherein said function comprises at least one of (a) a step function, (b) linear function, (c) a logarithmic function and (d) a continuous function.