Collision avoidance display system for vehicles

A collision avoidance display system for a vehicle mirror assembly comprising:

• a mirror housing;
• a mirror pane carried in said housing;
• a reflective coating disposed on a major surface of said mirror pane;
• a detector display carried in said mirror housing behind said mirror pane, wherein said reflective coating is adapted to pass at least a portion of the visible light projected from said detector display;
• a plurality of visual indicators included in said detector display being arranged in a pattern representing a monitored area adjacent a side of the vehicle and said indicators representing physical locations within said monitored area;
• an indicator controller operatively associated with said detector display for actuating said visual indicators to display an object location in said pattern that corresponds to the location of the object in said monitored area;
• and,
• a proximity sensor in communication with said indicator controller for transmitting a detection signal to said indicator controller when an object is located in said monitored area;
• whereby said indicator controller actuates said visual indicators in response to said detection signal to display an object location in said pattern that corresponds to an object location in said monitored area.

A detector display for a vehicle collision avoidance system, said detector display comprising:

• a plurality of visual indicators arranged in a pattern representing a monitored area adjacent the vehicle through which objects move when approaching the vehicle;
• each of said visual indicators in said pattern representing a physical location within said monitored area;
• and,
• an indicator controller operatively connected to said visual indicators for receiving a detection signal from a proximity sensor and actuating said visual indicators in response to said detection signal to display an object location in said pattern that corresponds to an object location in said monitored area.

A method for providing collision avoidance information to a vehicle driver comprising the steps of:

• defining a monitored area adjacent the vehicle through which objects move when approaching the vehicle;
• providing a detector display having visual indicators arranged into a pattern representing the physical configuration of said monitored area, and associating said visual indicators with physical locations in said monitored area;
• providing an indicator controller operatively connected to said detector display for actuating said visual indicators to display an object location in said pattern that corresponds to an object location in said monitored area;
• providing a proximity sensor in communication with said indicator controller having an object detection capacity covering said monitored area for detecting the physical location of objects within said monitored area;
• generating a detection signal from said proximity sensor to said indicator controller in response to detecting an object in said monitored area;
• and,
• actuating said visual indicators in response to said detection signal to display an object location in said pattern that corresponds to an object location in said monitored area.