Vehicular monitor actuating device and method

#The present invention related to a vehicular monitor actuating and more particularly to a vehicular monitor actuating device for use with a vehicular monitor, a-manual control device and a vehicle status indicator.

#When a driver is seated in a vehicle, he should adjust all of the interior and exterior rearview mirrors according to his need. The rearview mirror can be adjusted manually or automatically by pushing buttons. After the adjustment of rearview mirrors is done, the view angle of each rearview mirror seen by the driver is constant, and it is difficult and also dangerous for the driver to further change the view angles while driving.

#Therefore, rearview mirror control devices for automatically adjusting the view angle of a rearview mirror were developed to solve this problem. For example, when a driver would like to change to another lane, turn to another direction or overtaking a car, he will need to realize out the situation of the adjacent lane to see whether there is any vehicle oncoming. Therefore, the horizontally turning of the rearview mirror toward the target lane will be helpful for the lane-changing or overtaking operation. In addition, while moving up or down a slope, it is advantageous to turn the rearview mirror vertically to obtain a view range similar to that on the flat road. Taiwanese patent application Publication No. 388377 suggested such a rearview-mirror automatic control device, incorporated herein for reference.

#The above objects and advantages of the present invention will become more readily apparent to those ordinarily skilled in the art after reviewing the following detailed description and accompanying drawings, in which:

#FIG. 1 is a schematic circuit block diagram showing a prior art device for actuating a rearview mirror in response to the activation of the indicator light;

#FIG. 2 is a schematic circuit block diagram showing a device for actuating a vehicular monitor in response to the activation of the vehicle status indicator;

#The present invention will now be described more specifically with reference to the following embodiments. It is to be noted that the following descriptions of preferred embodiments of this invention are presented herein for purpose of illustration and description only; it is not intended to be exhaustive or to be limited to the precise form disclosed.

#Please refer to FIG. 2. The vehicular monitor actuating device 2 according to the present invention includes a micro-processor 23 in communication with a vehicle status indicator 22 and a manual control device 21, and an actuating signal channel 24 in communication with the micro-processor 23 and a vehicular monitor 20.

#The vehicular monitor, for example, can be a rearview mirror, a CCD or CMOS camera or a planar display such as LCD. Before driving, each of the vehicular monitor 20 is adjusted manually via the manual control device 21 such as a manual push button or a manual switch to a proper working condition. For example, for a rearview mirror, it should be moved or rotated to have a proper view angle from the driver's eyes. For the camera, it should be properly focused on a desired area. For the display, a proper view range should be shown. During the vehicle is running, it is the vehicular monitor actuating device 2 responsible for the view-range adjustment of the vehicular monitor 20. In this embodiment, the vehicular monitor actuating device 2 adjusts the view-range adjustment of the vehicular monitor 20 according to the output of the vehicle status indicator 22.