8 ms·

Math professor's side mirror that eliminates 'blind spot' receives US patent

139 points by yogrish 14y ago

stephengillie 14y ago
In the United States, regulations dictate that cars coming off of the assembly line must have a flat mirror on the driver's side. Curved mirrors are allowed for cars' passenger-side mirrors only if they include the phrase "Objects in mirror are closer than they appear." Because of these regulations, Hicks's mirrors will not be installed on new cars sold in the U.S. any time soon. The mirror may be manufactured and sold as an aftermarket product that drivers and mechanics can install on cars after purchase. Some countries in Europe and Asia do allow slightly curved mirrors on new cars. Hicks has received interest from investors and manufacturers who may pursue opportunities to license and produce the mirror.
- willvarfar 14y ago
  so the question becomes, is his patent valid in Europe and Asia?
  - metafunctor 14y ago
    Pretty much all cars where I live (Finland) already have non-flat mirrors. The most common type of mirror on the driver's side in new cars seems to be one which has a flat part (to show objects in their "true size") and a curved part at (to show a wider field of view).
    - willvarfar 14y ago
      yeah my old polo from the 90s has a drivers mirror that has a flat part and then a second, differently angled section that lets you see the blind spot.
    - sandGorgon 14y ago
      In India, we have stick-on blind spot mirrors that you can attach on your driver side mirror.
  - lloeki 14y ago
    No, because there is prior art. I'm not even sure it would stand in the US. It's been a while since I have not driven a car that has a flat mirror near side (cost cuts and relative driver position makes far side less of a problem. Still, they're often not exactly flat either). Cars here (Europe) generally have an improved version, as the linear radius was giving too much of a fisheye, which breaks depth linearity. The improved version starts with a quasi-flat mirror for the 2/3rd near the car, while the remainder has an increasing radius (Here's a shot [0]). The result is (when properly seated and mirrors set up) basically enough for the passing car to pop up at the edge of my field of vision when it disappears from the mirror. [0] http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/523/2007_Civic_iCDTi_Hatch_-_Drivers_side_mirror.jpg http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/523/2007_Civic_iCDTi_Hat...
    - mbreese 14y ago
      He would be able to patent all curved mirrors, just his particular implementation and design. He may have an optimal design that certainly would deserve patent protection. The question that he has to worry about with the patents is whether or not his 2008 paper was published before or after the non-US patents were applied for. If I'm not mistaken, the US has a one year grace period between public display (publishing an academic paper) and filing for a patent. Whereas Europe et al. do not have a grace period.
      - pwg 14y ago
        If you lookup the patent on the USPTO's system: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=8180606.PN.&OS=PN/8180606&RS=PN/8180606 http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sec... You will find that the ultimate filing date is Feb. 2007, and that multiple publications by Dr. Hicks were cited in the "Other References" area.
  - btn 14y ago
    According to its PCT entry [1], it's still making its way through the Australian, Canadian, European, and Japanese patent offices. 1: http://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=WO2008094886 http://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=WO200...
  - pwg 14y ago
    US patents are only valid in the US. He has to obtain a patent in each country separately (other than in the European union where it is possible to get a "European Patent").
- aresant 14y ago
  I am an easy sell to jump to conclusions about gov't idiocy but this one is so audacious it seems like there must a relevant reason - so why can't I have a curved mirror that is more efficient?
  - archangel_one 14y ago
    Curved mirrors are more efficient in one sense but tends to lead people to misjudge distances. Presumably the government think that showing a misleading picture may be worse than not showing one at all, which is not complete idiocy. This mirror apparently doesn't really suffer from that problem, but the legislation didn't anticipate it - which isn't really surprising, it's hardly realistic to expect them to foresee this development.
    - einhverfr 14y ago
      Indeed the picture in the article immediately made me think "How do I know how far those cars are away?" The objects in that mirror seem a lot closer than they appear, which strikes me as a different danger.
    - Confusion 14y ago
      Any mirror tends to lead people to misjudge distances and speeds. Mirrors are not things we naturally understand and you have to get used to judging how far behind you something is, while looking in front of you. If you're looking in a mirror and something comes in your direction very fast, you tend to step back... directly into the thing coming at you. Curved mirrors also take getting used to, but I doubt it has ever been shown that the number of errors people make because of using curved mirrors is larger than the number of errors people make while using regular mirrors. These kinds of rules get introduced because someone thinks "this makes sense", other people reading it think "this makes sense" and nobody with enough actual knowledge about the subject, who cares enough and has enough lobbying power, goes "now wait a second, this is not right".
      - hahainternet 14y ago
        You seem to be doing exactly what you're condemning them for. Just because your opinion differs from theirs is no reason to assume they are incorrect or that there are no studies involved.
- okamiueru 14y ago
  Maybe since it is based on tiny flat mirrors (like a disco ball), that law can somehow be loopholed. If the law was based on wanting to avoid distortions, whether the law applies to these new mirrors should be reconsidered? Surely, _some_ common sense exists in US legislature?
  - nitrogen 14y ago
    It's not actually flat: Hicks noted that, in reality, the mirror does not look like a disco ball up close. There are tens of thousands of such calculations to produce a mirror that has a smooth, nonuniform curve. I imagine "tens of thousands of such calculations" is newspaper code for integration. If someone assigned me the task of making such a mirror, I would start by treating the mirror like a monitor displaying a 3D scene, and calculate the vectors necessary to project a 45 degree view onto the surface of the mirror (i.e. start with a virtual camera behind the mirror such that it has a 45 degree field of view). I would then adjust those vectors so that the image will look like such a projection when seen by a viewer a few feet up and to the right, with the mirror occupying ~15 degrees of the viewer's FOV. In other words, everything I need to know I learned from video games.
    - DanI-S 14y ago
      If I were asked to make such a device, I would build a flexible mirror whose curve could be adjusted by an array of attached screws. I'd fix said mirror to a car, and adjust the screws until the desired curve was reached. I'd then measure the curve and duplicate it in a rigid finished product. It's actually amazing that it took a physicist/mathematician to think of this thing. I doubt I would have come up with the idea. It goes to show how domain knowledge shapes your perception of the world.
- bitrot 14y ago
  What if you have both?
  - einhverfr 14y ago
    yeah. The ideal approach is a flat mirror with a curved one inset either above or below. That way you beg both. However it seems to me that there is a bit of basic math at work here. The more you fit into a mirror of the same size, the smaller the objects will appear and the further away they will look. That strikes me as a very basic premise and I don't think you can get away from that so easily.
    - bitrot 14y ago
      I was thinking of having stacked mirrors, the way tractor trucks do. But your comment made me think: is there a way to have a flat mirror turn transparent, revealing a curved mirror behind it? You could activate the transparency just by using your turn signal.
      - einhverfr 14y ago
        Yeah, stacked is good.
      - protomyth 14y ago
        Bigger vehicles such as buses often have a large flat mirror and a small half-globe shaped mirror attached to them. This provides proper distance and gives a nice wide view when you need it. I would prefer cameras, but I am not sure if they are still not legal in the US.
- mbell 14y ago
  Last I knew cars in the US don't even have to have a passenger side mirror. I remember seeing the old base model Dodge Neon's on the streets with just a driver side window and confirmed they were sold as such, presumably to reduce costs.
  - jamesgeck0 14y ago
    Passenger side mirrors are far and away the norm in the US.
  - recursive 14y ago
    I have never seen a car without a passenger side mirror.
BadLogInMyAss 14y ago
Mirrors for ignorant people who don't adjust theirs properly. Your car does not have a "blind spot.". Fix your mirror position and move on.
wyclif 14y ago
A lot of new cars I've seen have partial curve to alleviate the blind spot. But what often goes unmentioned is adjusting an older, flat mirror correctly in the first place. I used to adjust mine so that a tiny portion of my car was in the lower right hand corner of the mirror. After a few years, I realised that adjusting the mirror out, further away from the car, gave me the widest and most practical view for driving of the lane to the left of me.
kschua 14y ago
This is just beautiful. Practical application of maths. I would love to get my hands on one of these when it is done. Glad that he has a patent for that. He should be justly rewarded for coming out with this road safety feature. To those that believe that there is prior art, do note that the patent granted is for "Wide angle substantially non-distorting mirror". It is not just any curve mirror, it is unlike normal curve mirror which distorts the image, from the picture, you can see that there doesn't appear to be any distortion, which is what makes his mirror unique
- ZeroGravitas 14y ago
  Glad that he has a patent for that. He should be justly rewarded for coming out with this road safety feature. I'd prefer if he was justly rewarded in some manner that doesn't involve him having the legal right to prevent others from using this road safety feature particularly as it probably has a chilling effect on similar improvements.
- bermanoid 14y ago
  I can't access the actual article, but this doesn't sound like a very substantial bit of work. On its face, it's the type of thing I'd probably expect a decently bright college kid to solve quite well as a week-long project, nothing more. Even if it was, we don't typically give out patents for mere solutions to novel math problems. Why should this be any different?
  - anamax 14y ago
    > Even if it was, we don't typically give out patents for mere solutions to novel math problems. Actually, we do give out patents for solutions to problems that involve math (the soluions involving math). Those patents do not cover using the same math for other problems.
kevinsd 14y ago
You know, receiving US patent does not mean much..
shin_lao 14y ago
Curved mirrors dont eliminate the blind spot, they reduce it. Perhaps this curved mirror reduce the blind spot to a very small area, but I submit a bicycle or pedestrian could still fit in it.
Jacqued 14y ago
I already had a side mirror that eliminates blind spot a few years ago on my Peugeot 207 (I live in Europe) although it didn't have such an angle of vision. Even though it's a neat invention, I still have to vomit every time I read the word "patent". And to say crooks are working hard to bring these to Europe
- Muzza 14y ago
  There have been patents in Europe for quite some time now.
  - Jacqued 14y ago
    Yeah, I was talking about idea patents. Being able to patent an actual implementation is somewhat ok, but being able to patent ideas is plain stupid, and they are in the prrocess of importing it to the EU
    - daeken 14y ago
      There are no non-"idea" patents. By their very nature, patents are there to provide a monopoly on novel ideas. If I come up with the design for a new gearing system and patent it, then you have an idea for a substantially similar system and build it, you're violating my patent. It's all about ideas.
franzus 14y ago
Suddenly patents are OK?
confluence 14y ago
Relevant: http://www.quora.com/Why-haven-t-cars-yet-solved-the-problem-of-the-blind-spot-in-wing-mirrors http://www.quora.com/Why-haven-t-cars-yet-solved-the-problem... Apparently most people set up their mirrors incorrectly by overlapping view paths, when it would in fact be better if things moved between mirrors without any overlap (e.g. rear view mirror covers the back whilst the side mirrors cover blind spots - no overlap in between). I've tried it out and it feels rather weird, but I must say I've found it quite effective. I still do head checks, but mostly just out of habit, and it's a good extra check to use just before you change lanes.
- snitzr 14y ago
  I agree, but prepare for flame war thread based on this idea. http://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/uq4l0/math_professors_drivers_side_mirror_that/c4xkmyr http://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/uq4l0/math_professo...
- wccrawford 14y ago
  I had my previous car set up so that there was only a tiny bit of overlap. This left my mind free of worry about a blind spot between them while giving me full view of everything behind me. Sadly, my new car's mirrors can't be positioned like this, and I really hate backing up in it. Due to the shape of it, I think the only solution is going to be a camera and video display. If I could find one that had nearly 180 degrees of viewing angle, that would be awesome. I usually don't need to judge where it is, just that there's something there or not.
- naner 14y ago
  I have had my side view mirrors setup like this for years and it isn't always better. The first problem is that you cannot see your car in the side view mirror. This doesn't seem like a big deal, but it can be difficult to judge where everything in the mirror is positioned if you don't have a reference point. You get used to this. The second issue is that if you have a big straight long line of cars behind that are close together (e.g. traffic on the interstate is at a crawl), you can not see far back on either side of your lane since your mirrors are pointed out and your center mirror is mostly consumed by the vehicle behind you. This makes it difficult to safely merge out of your lane in this situation.
gjm11 14y ago
Blogspam. Original press release from Drexel University: http://www.drexel.edu/now/news-media/releases/archive/2012/June/Drivers-Side-Mirror-With-No-Blind-Spot-Receives-US-Patent/ http://www.drexel.edu/now/news-media/releases/archive/2012/J... Added value in PhysOrg article: zero. Please, everyone, stop submitting links from PhysOrg and ScienceDaily. I have never ever ever seen anything on those sites that isn't either (1) bullshit or (2) a recycled press release with zero (or often negative) added value. (Sometimes it's both at once.) It only takes ten seconds' googling to find the original source.
- dhimes 14y ago
  I think you are a little harsh in bashing the sources. Their value is that they serve as a distribution of press releases from many sources. That is exactly how a press release is supposed to be used. And I can go to a press-release redistribution site and see press releases from various organizations in a related field instead of having to check each organization individually. Yes, please filter the bullshit. But submitting from press-release redistribution sites is ok. If it's of further interest, submit the original paper. In this case, the paper (scientific news) is old- it's the step in the business direction that is being disclosed.
  - sp332 14y ago
    While I agree that the sites are useful, HN guidelines request that you submit the original article. That reduces the number of duplicate submissions.
    - dhimes 14y ago
      Reducing duplicate submissions is an excellent point. I took the guideline to be more along the lines of "don't link articles like 'geez guys look at this cool article I found on wavepackets. Works for me!'" But I can certainly see the value of submitting the original PR if the site simply mirrors it.
- GFischer 14y ago
  Is there a good aggregator for that sort of stories that does add value? (I don't visit either site, but an aggregator with that focus might be worth visiting).
boredguy8 14y ago
Why do you have blind spots in the first place? http://www.caranddriver.com/features/how-to-adjust-your-mirrors-to-avoid-blind-spots http://www.caranddriver.com/features/how-to-adjust-your-mirr... "The paper advocates adjusting the mirrors so far outward that the viewing angle of the side mirrors just overlaps that of the cabin’s rearview mirror." I've been driving this way for a long time, and it's great. You can already see behind you: you don't need 2 more mirrors showing you the same thing.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- TylerE 14y ago
  Not sure why this is news. They've existed in Europe for over a decade. i've had them on my VW Golf almost since I bought it (Mirrors: http://www.ecstuning.com/Volkswagen-Golf_VI--TDI/Exterior/Mirrors/ES1892098/ http://www.ecstuning.com/Volkswagen-Golf_VI--TDI/Exterior/Mi...) they're convex, and variable radius. They're great. MUCH better than the "Car and Driver" technique. The problem is, as usual, regulator - DOT requires carmakers to sell new cars with a flat drivers side mirror.
- CodeMage 14y ago
  I don't know about others, but here's an extract from the article you linked that explains why I have blind spots: Those who have switched to the SAE's approach swear by it, however, some drivers can't adjust to not using the outside mirrors to see directly behind the car and miss being able to see their own car in the side mirrors. The reason I need to see a bit of my car in the side mirror is because I need to know not only what is behind me, but also where it is in relation to my car.
  - ramLlama 14y ago
    True, but as you get used to seeing the vehicle cross from your center mirror to your side mirror, you get a sense of where it is. Your point of reference just changes from your car in the side mirror to the combination of the location of the vehicle in the side mirror and the center mirror. You really just have to get used to it. I swear by this technique now.
jtreminio 14y ago
I can't believe this is something that someone needed to "invent". I bought a $5 concave mirror that I attached to the outer edge of my wife's mirrors, and they work better than this!
nicholaides 14y ago
He was my math prof. Here's a gallery of his crazy mirrors: http://www.newscientist.com/gallery/dn16585-amazing-mirrors/3 http://www.newscientist.com/gallery/dn16585-amazing-mirrors/... When I saw the article title, I immediately knew it was Dr. Hicks because he would talk about his work occasionally in class when it was related to what we were studying. Also, if you're at Drexel, you should take his math courses. He's easily the best math teacher I've ever had, and I didn't know it until after I graduated. All his classes seemed really easy, but in the last course I took he said something that made me realize how good he was. He said, "Before we get into the math, I want to give you an intuition of how this works." Later I realized that his courses like cryptography and multivariate calculus were so easy is because he knew how to give you that intuition and the mathematics came almost naturally after that.

139 points by yogrish 14y ago

In the United States, regulations dictate that cars coming off of the assembly line must have a flat mirror on the driver's side. Curved mirrors are allowed for cars' passenger-side mirrors only if they include the phrase "Objects in mirror are closer than they appear." Because of these regulations, Hicks's mirrors will not be installed on new cars sold in the U.S. any time soon. The mirror may be manufactured and sold as an aftermarket product that drivers and mechanics can install on cars after purchase. Some countries in Europe and Asia do allow slightly curved mirrors on new cars. Hicks has received interest from investors and manufacturers who may pursue opportunities to license and produce the mirror.

willvarfar 14y ago
so the question becomes, is his patent valid in Europe and Asia?
- metafunctor 14y ago
  Pretty much all cars where I live (Finland) already have non-flat mirrors. The most common type of mirror on the driver's side in new cars seems to be one which has a flat part (to show objects in their "true size") and a curved part at (to show a wider field of view).
  - willvarfar 14y ago
    yeah my old polo from the 90s has a drivers mirror that has a flat part and then a second, differently angled section that lets you see the blind spot.
  - sandGorgon 14y ago
    In India, we have stick-on blind spot mirrors that you can attach on your driver side mirror.
- lloeki 14y ago
  No, because there is prior art. I'm not even sure it would stand in the US. It's been a while since I have not driven a car that has a flat mirror near side (cost cuts and relative driver position makes far side less of a problem. Still, they're often not exactly flat either). Cars here (Europe) generally have an improved version, as the linear radius was giving too much of a fisheye, which breaks depth linearity. The improved version starts with a quasi-flat mirror for the 2/3rd near the car, while the remainder has an increasing radius (Here's a shot [0]). The result is (when properly seated and mirrors set up) basically enough for the passing car to pop up at the edge of my field of vision when it disappears from the mirror. [0] http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/523/2007_Civic_iCDTi_Hatch_-_Drivers_side_mirror.jpg http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/523/2007_Civic_iCDTi_Hat...
  - mbreese 14y ago
    He would be able to patent all curved mirrors, just his particular implementation and design. He may have an optimal design that certainly would deserve patent protection. The question that he has to worry about with the patents is whether or not his 2008 paper was published before or after the non-US patents were applied for. If I'm not mistaken, the US has a one year grace period between public display (publishing an academic paper) and filing for a patent. Whereas Europe et al. do not have a grace period.
    - pwg 14y ago
      If you lookup the patent on the USPTO's system: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=8180606.PN.&OS=PN/8180606&RS=PN/8180606 http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sec... You will find that the ultimate filing date is Feb. 2007, and that multiple publications by Dr. Hicks were cited in the "Other References" area.
- btn 14y ago
  According to its PCT entry [1], it's still making its way through the Australian, Canadian, European, and Japanese patent offices. 1: http://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=WO2008094886 http://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=WO200...
- pwg 14y ago
  US patents are only valid in the US. He has to obtain a patent in each country separately (other than in the European union where it is possible to get a "European Patent").
aresant 14y ago
I am an easy sell to jump to conclusions about gov't idiocy but this one is so audacious it seems like there must a relevant reason - so why can't I have a curved mirror that is more efficient?
- archangel_one 14y ago
  Curved mirrors are more efficient in one sense but tends to lead people to misjudge distances. Presumably the government think that showing a misleading picture may be worse than not showing one at all, which is not complete idiocy. This mirror apparently doesn't really suffer from that problem, but the legislation didn't anticipate it - which isn't really surprising, it's hardly realistic to expect them to foresee this development.
  - einhverfr 14y ago
    Indeed the picture in the article immediately made me think "How do I know how far those cars are away?" The objects in that mirror seem a lot closer than they appear, which strikes me as a different danger.
  - Confusion 14y ago
    Any mirror tends to lead people to misjudge distances and speeds. Mirrors are not things we naturally understand and you have to get used to judging how far behind you something is, while looking in front of you. If you're looking in a mirror and something comes in your direction very fast, you tend to step back... directly into the thing coming at you. Curved mirrors also take getting used to, but I doubt it has ever been shown that the number of errors people make because of using curved mirrors is larger than the number of errors people make while using regular mirrors. These kinds of rules get introduced because someone thinks "this makes sense", other people reading it think "this makes sense" and nobody with enough actual knowledge about the subject, who cares enough and has enough lobbying power, goes "now wait a second, this is not right".
    - hahainternet 14y ago
      You seem to be doing exactly what you're condemning them for. Just because your opinion differs from theirs is no reason to assume they are incorrect or that there are no studies involved.
okamiueru 14y ago
Maybe since it is based on tiny flat mirrors (like a disco ball), that law can somehow be loopholed. If the law was based on wanting to avoid distortions, whether the law applies to these new mirrors should be reconsidered? Surely, _some_ common sense exists in US legislature?
- nitrogen 14y ago
  It's not actually flat: Hicks noted that, in reality, the mirror does not look like a disco ball up close. There are tens of thousands of such calculations to produce a mirror that has a smooth, nonuniform curve. I imagine "tens of thousands of such calculations" is newspaper code for integration. If someone assigned me the task of making such a mirror, I would start by treating the mirror like a monitor displaying a 3D scene, and calculate the vectors necessary to project a 45 degree view onto the surface of the mirror (i.e. start with a virtual camera behind the mirror such that it has a 45 degree field of view). I would then adjust those vectors so that the image will look like such a projection when seen by a viewer a few feet up and to the right, with the mirror occupying ~15 degrees of the viewer's FOV. In other words, everything I need to know I learned from video games.
  - DanI-S 14y ago
    If I were asked to make such a device, I would build a flexible mirror whose curve could be adjusted by an array of attached screws. I'd fix said mirror to a car, and adjust the screws until the desired curve was reached. I'd then measure the curve and duplicate it in a rigid finished product. It's actually amazing that it took a physicist/mathematician to think of this thing. I doubt I would have come up with the idea. It goes to show how domain knowledge shapes your perception of the world.
bitrot 14y ago
What if you have both?
- einhverfr 14y ago
  yeah. The ideal approach is a flat mirror with a curved one inset either above or below. That way you beg both. However it seems to me that there is a bit of basic math at work here. The more you fit into a mirror of the same size, the smaller the objects will appear and the further away they will look. That strikes me as a very basic premise and I don't think you can get away from that so easily.
  - bitrot 14y ago
    I was thinking of having stacked mirrors, the way tractor trucks do. But your comment made me think: is there a way to have a flat mirror turn transparent, revealing a curved mirror behind it? You could activate the transparency just by using your turn signal.
    - einhverfr 14y ago
      Yeah, stacked is good.
    - protomyth 14y ago
      Bigger vehicles such as buses often have a large flat mirror and a small half-globe shaped mirror attached to them. This provides proper distance and gives a nice wide view when you need it. I would prefer cameras, but I am not sure if they are still not legal in the US.
mbell 14y ago
Last I knew cars in the US don't even have to have a passenger side mirror. I remember seeing the old base model Dodge Neon's on the streets with just a driver side window and confirmed they were sold as such, presumably to reduce costs.
- jamesgeck0 14y ago
  Passenger side mirrors are far and away the norm in the US.
- recursive 14y ago
  I have never seen a car without a passenger side mirror.

BadLogInMyAss 14y ago

Mirrors for ignorant people who don't adjust theirs properly. Your car does not have a "blind spot.". Fix your mirror position and move on.

wyclif 14y ago

A lot of new cars I've seen have partial curve to alleviate the blind spot. But what often goes unmentioned is adjusting an older, flat mirror correctly in the first place. I used to adjust mine so that a tiny portion of my car was in the lower right hand corner of the mirror. After a few years, I realised that adjusting the mirror out, further away from the car, gave me the widest and most practical view for driving of the lane to the left of me.

kschua 14y ago

This is just beautiful. Practical application of maths. I would love to get my hands on one of these when it is done. Glad that he has a patent for that. He should be justly rewarded for coming out with this road safety feature. To those that believe that there is prior art, do note that the patent granted is for "Wide angle substantially non-distorting mirror". It is not just any curve mirror, it is unlike normal curve mirror which distorts the image, from the picture, you can see that there doesn't appear to be any distortion, which is what makes his mirror unique

ZeroGravitas 14y ago
Glad that he has a patent for that. He should be justly rewarded for coming out with this road safety feature. I'd prefer if he was justly rewarded in some manner that doesn't involve him having the legal right to prevent others from using this road safety feature particularly as it probably has a chilling effect on similar improvements.
bermanoid 14y ago
I can't access the actual article, but this doesn't sound like a very substantial bit of work. On its face, it's the type of thing I'd probably expect a decently bright college kid to solve quite well as a week-long project, nothing more. Even if it was, we don't typically give out patents for mere solutions to novel math problems. Why should this be any different?
- anamax 14y ago
  > Even if it was, we don't typically give out patents for mere solutions to novel math problems. Actually, we do give out patents for solutions to problems that involve math (the soluions involving math). Those patents do not cover using the same math for other problems.

kevinsd 14y ago

You know, receiving US patent does not mean much..

shin_lao 14y ago

Curved mirrors dont eliminate the blind spot, they reduce it. Perhaps this curved mirror reduce the blind spot to a very small area, but I submit a bicycle or pedestrian could still fit in it.

Jacqued 14y ago

I already had a side mirror that eliminates blind spot a few years ago on my Peugeot 207 (I live in Europe) although it didn't have such an angle of vision. Even though it's a neat invention, I still have to vomit every time I read the word "patent". And to say crooks are working hard to bring these to Europe

Muzza 14y ago
There have been patents in Europe for quite some time now.
- Jacqued 14y ago
  Yeah, I was talking about idea patents. Being able to patent an actual implementation is somewhat ok, but being able to patent ideas is plain stupid, and they are in the prrocess of importing it to the EU
  - daeken 14y ago
    There are no non-"idea" patents. By their very nature, patents are there to provide a monopoly on novel ideas. If I come up with the design for a new gearing system and patent it, then you have an idea for a substantially similar system and build it, you're violating my patent. It's all about ideas.

franzus 14y ago

Suddenly patents are OK?

confluence 14y ago

Relevant: http://www.quora.com/Why-haven-t-cars-yet-solved-the-problem-of-the-blind-spot-in-wing-mirrors http://www.quora.com/Why-haven-t-cars-yet-solved-the-problem... Apparently most people set up their mirrors incorrectly by overlapping view paths, when it would in fact be better if things moved between mirrors without any overlap (e.g. rear view mirror covers the back whilst the side mirrors cover blind spots - no overlap in between). I've tried it out and it feels rather weird, but I must say I've found it quite effective. I still do head checks, but mostly just out of habit, and it's a good extra check to use just before you change lanes.

snitzr 14y ago
I agree, but prepare for flame war thread based on this idea. http://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/uq4l0/math_professors_drivers_side_mirror_that/c4xkmyr http://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/uq4l0/math_professo...
wccrawford 14y ago
I had my previous car set up so that there was only a tiny bit of overlap. This left my mind free of worry about a blind spot between them while giving me full view of everything behind me. Sadly, my new car's mirrors can't be positioned like this, and I really hate backing up in it. Due to the shape of it, I think the only solution is going to be a camera and video display. If I could find one that had nearly 180 degrees of viewing angle, that would be awesome. I usually don't need to judge where it is, just that there's something there or not.
naner 14y ago
I have had my side view mirrors setup like this for years and it isn't always better. The first problem is that you cannot see your car in the side view mirror. This doesn't seem like a big deal, but it can be difficult to judge where everything in the mirror is positioned if you don't have a reference point. You get used to this. The second issue is that if you have a big straight long line of cars behind that are close together (e.g. traffic on the interstate is at a crawl), you can not see far back on either side of your lane since your mirrors are pointed out and your center mirror is mostly consumed by the vehicle behind you. This makes it difficult to safely merge out of your lane in this situation.

gjm11 14y ago

Blogspam. Original press release from Drexel University: http://www.drexel.edu/now/news-media/releases/archive/2012/June/Drivers-Side-Mirror-With-No-Blind-Spot-Receives-US-Patent/ http://www.drexel.edu/now/news-media/releases/archive/2012/J... Added value in PhysOrg article: zero. Please, everyone, stop submitting links from PhysOrg and ScienceDaily. I have never ever ever seen anything on those sites that isn't either (1) bullshit or (2) a recycled press release with zero (or often negative) added value. (Sometimes it's both at once.) It only takes ten seconds' googling to find the original source.

dhimes 14y ago
I think you are a little harsh in bashing the sources. Their value is that they serve as a distribution of press releases from many sources. That is exactly how a press release is supposed to be used. And I can go to a press-release redistribution site and see press releases from various organizations in a related field instead of having to check each organization individually. Yes, please filter the bullshit. But submitting from press-release redistribution sites is ok. If it's of further interest, submit the original paper. In this case, the paper (scientific news) is old- it's the step in the business direction that is being disclosed.
- sp332 14y ago
  While I agree that the sites are useful, HN guidelines request that you submit the original article. That reduces the number of duplicate submissions.
  - dhimes 14y ago
    Reducing duplicate submissions is an excellent point. I took the guideline to be more along the lines of "don't link articles like 'geez guys look at this cool article I found on wavepackets. Works for me!'" But I can certainly see the value of submitting the original PR if the site simply mirrors it.
GFischer 14y ago
Is there a good aggregator for that sort of stories that does add value? (I don't visit either site, but an aggregator with that focus might be worth visiting).

boredguy8 14y ago

Why do you have blind spots in the first place? http://www.caranddriver.com/features/how-to-adjust-your-mirrors-to-avoid-blind-spots http://www.caranddriver.com/features/how-to-adjust-your-mirr... "The paper advocates adjusting the mirrors so far outward that the viewing angle of the side mirrors just overlaps that of the cabin’s rearview mirror." I've been driving this way for a long time, and it's great. You can already see behind you: you don't need 2 more mirrors showing you the same thing.

deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
TylerE 14y ago
Not sure why this is news. They've existed in Europe for over a decade. i've had them on my VW Golf almost since I bought it (Mirrors: http://www.ecstuning.com/Volkswagen-Golf_VI--TDI/Exterior/Mirrors/ES1892098/ http://www.ecstuning.com/Volkswagen-Golf_VI--TDI/Exterior/Mi...) they're convex, and variable radius. They're great. MUCH better than the "Car and Driver" technique. The problem is, as usual, regulator - DOT requires carmakers to sell new cars with a flat drivers side mirror.
CodeMage 14y ago
I don't know about others, but here's an extract from the article you linked that explains why I have blind spots: Those who have switched to the SAE's approach swear by it, however, some drivers can't adjust to not using the outside mirrors to see directly behind the car and miss being able to see their own car in the side mirrors. The reason I need to see a bit of my car in the side mirror is because I need to know not only what is behind me, but also where it is in relation to my car.
- ramLlama 14y ago
  True, but as you get used to seeing the vehicle cross from your center mirror to your side mirror, you get a sense of where it is. Your point of reference just changes from your car in the side mirror to the combination of the location of the vehicle in the side mirror and the center mirror. You really just have to get used to it. I swear by this technique now.

jtreminio 14y ago

I can't believe this is something that someone needed to "invent". I bought a $5 concave mirror that I attached to the outer edge of my wife's mirrors, and they work better than this!

nicholaides 14y ago

He was my math prof. Here's a gallery of his crazy mirrors: http://www.newscientist.com/gallery/dn16585-amazing-mirrors/3 http://www.newscientist.com/gallery/dn16585-amazing-mirrors/... When I saw the article title, I immediately knew it was Dr. Hicks because he would talk about his work occasionally in class when it was related to what we were studying. Also, if you're at Drexel, you should take his math courses. He's easily the best math teacher I've ever had, and I didn't know it until after I graduated. All his classes seemed really easy, but in the last course I took he said something that made me realize how good he was. He said, "Before we get into the math, I want to give you an intuition of how this works." Later I realized that his courses like cryptography and multivariate calculus were so easy is because he knew how to give you that intuition and the mathematics came almost naturally after that.