Murakami Corporation

Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha Corporation

Noriyuki Unno

Hidenori Sato

Yoshihiro Gohara

Mitsuyoshi Nagao

Shunsuke Nagasawa

Mina Sugino

A mirror display apparatus that subjects a mirror optical element to pulse voltage driving so that a reflectivity in a mirror mode can be changed by means of a duty cycle of the pulse voltage is provided. A mirror display apparatus includes a monitor display device and a mirror optical element disposed on the front side of the monitor display device. The mirror optical element includes a liquid-crystal panel with a reflection-type polarizer disposed on the back side thereof. The mirror optical element has a reflectivity and a transmissivity that are changed in respective directions opposite to each other via electric driving using a voltage applied to the liquid-crystal panel. A control circuit drives the liquid-crystal panel using a pulse voltage and performs control to change the reflectivity and the transmissivity of the mirror optical element by changing a duty cycle of the pulse voltage.

Mirror display apparatus

A vehicle environment monitoring device comprises an imaging section for taking image data of an environment of an automobile, the image including at least two types of colors; a setting section for setting a specific area of the image data obtained by the imaging section, wherein the specific area has a strip shape longer in, and parallel to, a horizontal direction of a frame image and includes at least two types of colors; an extraction section for taking in image data of the specific area in units of one or a plurality of frame images taken by the imaging section in time series and extracting moving vector information based on the image data of the specific area; and a detection section for detecting a second vehicle which is present in an environment of a first vehicle having the vehicle environment monitoring device mounted thereon, based on the moving vector information.

Vehicle environment monitoring device, vehicle environment monitoring method, control program and computer-readable recording medium

A mirror assembly is detachably attached to an open side of a mirror housing in an exterior rearview mirror system (exterior mirror) that is mounted outside a vehicle body. A mirror in the mirror assembly is comprised of a transparent glass plate with a reflective coating spread over a back surface of the transparent glass plate , through which reflective coating electric current passes to produce an antiglare effect. The electric current passing through the reflective coating is controlled using a sensors that detect intensity of light from surroundings and rearward of the vehicle body, and an electronic control circuit that compares intensity of light detected in each sensor to automatically adjust an antiglare level of reflection in the reflective coating . A battery that is connected with the electronic control circuit and supplies electric current into the reflective coating is provided in the mirror housing

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Shizuoka, Japan

Noriyuki Unno