DESC:FIELD OF INVENTION

The present invention relates to an arrangement for providing a clear view ahead of the motor vehicle to the rear-seat passengers. In particular, the present invention relates to an arrangement for providing a clear view to the passengers sitting behind the front seats in a motor vehicle. More particularly, the present invention relates to an arrangement for providing a see-through view ahead of the motor vehicle to the rear-seat passengers.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

While travelling in a motor vehicle, the rear seat passengers have a natural urge and temptation to be able to see the path ahead of the vehicle. However, due to the presence of the front seat occupied by the driver and co-passenger/driver and their head-rest, their view is hindered, and the rear-seat passengers are unable to see the scene in front of the motor vehicle. In order to see the view in front of the vehicle, the rear-passengers have to move from their seating position, which creates fatigue and stress to the rear-seat passengers. In addition to this, in case the vehicle is going off-road or when the driver tends to doze-off or in case of any impending danger overlooked by the driver, the drive may prove to be very dangerous from the point of view of the safety of the vehicle occupants.

PRIOR ART

JP2000085472A relates to a front scene viewing device from rear-seat of passenger car. It discloses an arrangement for enabling a passenger to sufficiently view a front scene in the state of being seated on a rear seat. Accordingly, an upper mirror l inclined forward by about 450 is provided just above the head rest 4. This head rest 4 is provided with an L-shaped light passage cavity 7, which leads to the rear part from the upper part of the head rest 4. The bottom part of this light passage cavity 7 is provided with a lower mirror 2 turned backward and upward by about 450. With this arrangement, a person seated on a rear-seat can view a front scene on the mirror surface of the lower mirror 2 fitted inside the L-shaped cavity 7 configured in the head rest 4.
DISADVANTAGES WITH THE PRIOR ART

However, the arrangement in the above-referred prior-art document requires fixing of plane mirrors above the head rest 4 of the front seats and inside the L-shaped cavity 7 configured inside the head rest 4. This involves additional manufacturing costs for head rest 4 as well requires substantial head space for fixing plane mirror above the front seat head rest. Moreover, the quality of image obtained by using plane mirrors is substantially poor than a convex/concave mirror of the same size. In view of above drawbacks, the arrangement proposed by the above-described Japanese patent document includes the following limitations to resolving the concerns existing in this field:

• Only a limited view is captured and projected on the viewing mirror.

• Projected viewing mirror is fixed at 45°, which also creates limitations for kids/ short height persons.

• Co-driver head can also create obstacle for capturing front view

DESCRIPTION OF THE PRESENT INVENTION

To overcome above concerns, a simple and frugal concept has been configured by using a combination of concave/convex and plane mirrors with low-cost mountings on the motor vehicle ceiling and on the back of the headrest of the co-driver’s seat.

This new arrangement gives a clearer and broader view of the road ahead to the rear-seat passengers, while travelling in a motor vehicle. This arrangement is simple to make, because it is based on the principle of reflection. There is a concave/convex mirror mounted on the ceiling which also captures the driver’s view and projects it on the plain mirror mounted on the back of co-driver’s seat-headrest.

In this way, a broader view of the road ahead can be clearly seen by the passengers sitting in second/third rows without experiencing any fatigue or stress, which was common in the existing arrangements in the motor vehicles.
OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION

Some of the objects of the present invention - satisfied by at least one embodiment of the present invention - are as follows:

An object of the present invention is to provide a fatigue-free view of the scene ahead of the motor vehicle to the rear-seat passengers.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a stress-free view of the scene ahead of the motor vehicle to the rear-seat passengers.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide a viewing arrangement for facilitating a broader view of the scene ahead of the motor vehicle to the rear-seat passengers.

Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a viewing arrangement for an unrestricted view of the scene ahead of the motor vehicle to the rear-seat passengers including children/persons having short height.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a viewing arrangement in which the passenger in the co-driver’s seat does not pose any obstacle in viewing the scene ahead of the motor vehicle to the rear-seat passengers.

These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following description when read with the accompanying figures of drawing, which are, however, not intended to limit the scope of the present invention in any way.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In accordance with the present invention, there is provided a viewing arrangement for providing a see-through view ahead of the motor-vehicle to the rear-seat passenger/s normally blocked by the front seat and/or seat row, wherein the arrangement comprises:
• at least one convex mirror fitted substantially under the ceiling of the motor-vehicle at a location suitable to capture the complete view appearing ahead of the motor vehicle through the windshield; and

• at least one mirror fitted substantially at the eye-level of the rear-seat passenger;

wherein the view captured by the mirror fitted under the ceiling is reflected on the mirror fitted behind the head-rest of the front-seat and/or front row of the motor vehicle to provide a see-through view of the scene appearing ahead of the motor vehicle captured through the windshield.

Typically, a concave mirror is fixed in a frame fitted under the ceiling to capture the view through the windshield of the motor-vehicle and to reflect it back on a plain mirror mounted behind the front-seat/row head-rest to be seen by the rear-seat/row passenger/s.

Typically, the concave mirror is foldable and/or tiltable at an angle within the frame thereof based on the requirement of the rear-seat/row passenger and/or depending on the position of the driver’s seat in the motor vehicle.

Typically, a convex mirror is fixed in a frame fitted under the ceiling to capture the view through the windshield of the motor-vehicle and to reflect it back on a plain mirror mounted behind the front-seat/row head-rest to be seen by the rear-seat/row passenger/s.

Typically, the convex mirror is foldable and/or tiltable at an angle within the frame thereof based on the requirement of the rear-seat/row passenger and/or depending on the position of the driver’s seat in the motor vehicle.

Typically, a plurality of sets of concave or convex mirrors and plain mirrors are fitted between each pair of front-row/seats and rear-row-seats for providing a see-through view appearing ahead of the motor-vehicle to the passengers seated on the rear-seat/row of the motor-vehicle.
Typically, the plurality of sets of convex/concave mirrors are fitted under the ceiling of the motor-vehicle such that any forward mirror does not obstruct to capture the view appearing ahead of the motor-vehicle by the mirror disposed rearward thereto.

Typically, the ceiling of the motor-vehicle is configured with a profile to facilitate view capturing by each row of mirrors fitted thereon.

Typically, the floor of the motor-vehicle is configured with a profile to facilitate unhindered view to the passenger seated on any seat/row of the views captured by each concave/convex mirror mounted under the ceiling of the motor-vehicle.

Typically, the arrangement comprises:

• at least one concave and/or convex mirror fitted substantially under the ceiling of the motor-vehicle at a location suitable to capture the complete view appearing ahead of the motor vehicle through the windshield; and

• at least one mirror fitted substantially at the eye-level of the rear-seat passenger, the mirror being adaptable to the comfortable eye-level of the rear-seat/row passenger/s of different heights;

wherein the view captured by the mirror fitted under the ceiling is reflected on the mirror fitted behind the head-rest of the front-seat and/or front row of the motor vehicle to provide a see-through view of the scene appearing ahead of the motor vehicle captured through the windshield, the mirror being foldable and/or tiltable at an angle as per rear-seat/row passenger/s requirement or depending on the position of the seat of the passenger/s or driver sitting on the seat/row disposed forward of the rear-seat/row passenger/s.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE ACCOMPANYING DRAWINGS

The present invention will be briefly described with reference to the accompanying drawings, which include:
Figure 1 shows the schematic cross-sectional view of a motor vehicle equipped with the first embodiment of the arrangement in accordance with the present invention for providing a see-through view to the rear-seat passengers.

Figure 2 shows the schematic view of a motor vehicle equipped with the second embodiment of the arrangement in accordance with the present invention for providing a see-through view for the rear-seat passengers.

Figure 3 shows the schematic view of a motor vehicle equipped with the first embodiment of the arrangement in accordance with the present invention for providing a see-through view for the rear-seat passengers.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE ACCOMPANYING DRAWINGS

In the following, different embodiments of the present invention will be described in more details with reference to the accompanying drawings without limiting the scope and ambit of the present invention in any way.

The motor vehicle could be any type of vehicle having at least two rows of seats, i.e. a driver’s seat and at least one rear-passenger’s seat behind it. These motor vehicles may be cars, trucks, buses, vans, minivans, sports utility vehicles (SUVs) etc. However, the exemplary embodiments shown here pertain to SUVs.

Figure 1 shows the schematic cross-sectional view of a motor vehicle 100 equipped with the first embodiment of the arrangement in accordance with the present invention for providing a see-through view to the rear-seat passengers 150. The motor vehicle floor is mounted with a first row compartment 103 provided with the first seating row 109 including a seat for the motor vehicle driver 151. The motor vehicle floor may also be mounted with a plurality of multiple rows of rear-seats. In this embodiment, the rear-seat compartment includes a second row compartment 101 with a second seating row 110 having rear-seat for at least one passenger 150, the second seating row 110 being mounted just behind the first seating row 109. The motor vehicle 100 here also includes a third row compartment 102 with a third seating row 111 having more rear-seats mounted behind the second seating row 110. Normally, the first seating row 109 is occupied at least by the motor vehicle driver 151 and optionally by at least one co-driver or co-passenger (not visible here). The passenger 150 seated in the second seating row 110 is facilitated to see-through the view captured by concave mirror 104 on a frame 105 affixed on the ceiling 107 of the motor vehicle 100 foldable and tiltable at an angle as per passenger requirement or depending on the position of the driver’s seat 109 of the motor vehicle 100. The captured image of the scene ahead seen-through the windshield 108 of the motor vehicle 100 is received in the form of incident rays Li falling on the concave mirror 104, which are subsequently reflected by this concave mirror 104 towards a plain mirror 106 mounted on the back of the headrest of the driver or co-driver/co-passenger’s seat 109.

Figure 2 shows the schematic view of a motor vehicle (SUV) 200 equipped with the second embodiment of the arrangement in accordance with the present invention for providing a see-through view to the rear-seat passengers 250. The seating arrangement is similar to that shown in Figure 1, however shown with only one rear-seat row 210. The first seating row 209 is occupied by at least the motor vehicle driver 251 and at least one co-driver or co-passenger (not visible here). The rear-seat passenger 250 is enabled with a see-through view captured by convex mirror 204 affixed on the ceiling of the motor vehicle 200. The captured image of the scene ahead of the motor vehicle 200 passing through the windshield is received in the form of incident rays Li falling on the convex mirror 204, which are subsequently reflected towards a plain mirror 206 mounted on the back of the headrest of the driver or co-driver/co-passenger’s seat 251, as shown in Figure 1 and as described therein.

Figure 3 shows the schematic view of the third embodiment of the arrangement in accordance with the present invention in a motor vehicle configured to provide a see-through view for the rear-seat passengers 350. The seating arrangement is similar to that shown in Figure 2, however provided with only one rear-seat row. The first seating row is occupied at least by the motor vehicle driver 351. The rear-seat passenger 350 is gets a see-through view captured by means of a convex mirror 305 mounted rotatable on the ceiling of the motor vehicle. The captured image of the scene ahead of the motor vehicle passing through the windshield of the motor vehicle is received in the form of incident rays Li falling on the convex mirror 305, which are subsequently reflected by this convex mirror 305 towards a plain mirror 306 mounted on the back of the headrest of the driver’s seat 351, as shown in Figure 2 and described above.

WORKING OF THE INVENTION:

The view ahead of the motor vehicle is captured by the concave/convex mirror affixed on the ceiling of the motor vehicle, which is reflected to the plain mirror mounted on the back of the headrest of the drive or co-drive/co-passenger’s seat. The arrangement is very simple in configuration requiring no special parts except for one concave-convex and plain mirror each.

TECHNICAL ADVANTAGES AND ECONOMIC SIGNIFICANCE

The arrangement for providing a see-through view ahead of the motor vehicle to the rear-seat passengers configured in accordance with the present invention has the following advantages:

• Fatigue-free view of the scene ahead of the motor vehicle to the rear-seat passengers.

• Stress-free view of the scene ahead of the motor vehicle to the rear-seat passengers.

• Viewing arrangement facilitates a broader view of the scene ahead of the motor vehicle to the rear-seat passengers.

• Viewing arrangement provides an unrestricted view of the scene ahead of the motor vehicle to the rear-seat passengers including children/persons having short height.

• Viewing arrangement with co-driver’s seat not posing any obstacle in viewing the scene ahead of the motor vehicle to the rear-seat passengers.

• Low-cost arrangement based on simple principle of reflection of light.
The foregoing description of the specific embodiments will so fully reveal the general nature of the embodiments herein that others can, by applying current knowledge, readily modify and/or adapt for various applications such specific embodiments without departing from the generic concept, and, therefore, such adaptations and modifications should and are intended to be comprehended within the meaning and range of equivalents of the disclosed embodiments.

It is to be understood that the phraseology or terminology employed herein is for the purpose of description and not of limitation. The description provided herein is purely by way of example and illustration. The various features and advantageous details are explained with reference to this non-limiting embodiment in the above description in accordance with the present invention. The descriptions of well-known components and manufacturing and processing techniques are consciously omitted in this specification, so as not to unnecessarily obscure the specification.

Therefore, while the embodiments herein have been described in terms of preferred embodiments, those skilled in the art will recognize that the embodiments herein can be practiced with modification within the spirit and scope of the embodiments as described herein.

Although the embodiments presented in this disclosure have been described in terms of its preferred embodiments, a person skilled in the art may make innumerable changes, variations, modifications, alterations and/or integrations in terms of materials and method used to configure, manufacture and assemble various constituents, components, subassemblies and assemblies, in terms of their size, shapes, orientations and interrelationships without departing from the scope and spirit of the present invention.

The numerical values given of various physical parameters, dimensions and quantities are only approximate values and it is envisaged that the values higher or lower than the numerical value assigned to the physical parameters, dimensions and quantities fall within the scope of the disclosure unless there is a statement in the specification to the contrary.

Throughout this specification the word “comprise”, or variations such as “comprises” or “comprising”, shall be understood to implies including a described element, integer or method step, or group of elements, integers or method steps, however, does not imply excluding any other element, integer or step, or group of elements, integers or method steps.

The use of the expression “a”, “at least” or “at least one” shall imply using one or more elements or ingredients or quantities, as used in the embodiment of the disclosure in order to achieve one or more of the intended objects or results of the present invention.

While considerable emphasis has been placed on the specific features of the preferred embodiment described here, it will be appreciated that many additional features can be added and that many changes can be made in the preferred embodiments without departing from the principles of the invention. ,CLAIMS:We claim:

1. A viewing arrangement for providing a see-through view ahead of the motor-vehicle to the rear-seat passenger/s normally blocked by the front seat and/or seat row, wherein the arrangement comprises:

• at least one convex mirror fitted substantially under the ceiling of the motor-vehicle at a location suitable to capture the complete view appearing ahead of the motor vehicle through the windshield; and

• at least one mirror fitted substantially at the eye-level of the rear-seat passenger;

wherein the view captured by the mirror fitted under the ceiling is reflected on the mirror fitted behind the head-rest of the front-seat and/or front row of the motor vehicle to provide a see-through view of the scene appearing ahead of the motor vehicle captured through the windshield.

2. The viewing arrangement as claimed in claim 1, wherein a concave mirror is fixed in a frame fitted under the ceiling to capture the view through the windshield of the motor-vehicle and to reflect it back on a plain mirror mounted behind the front-seat/row head-rest to be seen by the rear-seat/row passenger/s.

3. The viewing arrangement as claimed in claim 2, wherein the concave mirror is foldable and/or tiltable at an angle within the frame thereof based on the requirement of the rear-seat/row passenger and/or depending on the position of the driver’s seat in the motor vehicle.

4. The viewing arrangement as claimed in claim 1, wherein a convex mirror is fixed in a frame fitted under the ceiling to capture the view through the windshield of the motor-vehicle and to reflect it back on a plain mirror mounted behind the front-seat/row head-rest to be seen by the rear-seat/row passenger/s.

5. The viewing arrangement as claimed in claim 4, wherein the convex mirror is foldable and/or tiltable at an angle within the frame thereof based on the requirement of the rear-seat/row passenger and/or depending on the position of the driver’s seat in the motor vehicle.

6. The viewing arrangement as claimed in claim 1, wherein a plurality of sets of concave or convex mirrors and plain mirrors are fitted between each pair of front-row/seats and rear-row-seats for providing a see-through view appearing ahead of the motor-vehicle to the passengers seated on the rear-seat/row of the motor-vehicle.

7. The viewing arrangement as claimed in claim 6, wherein the plurality of sets of convex/concave mirrors are fitted under the ceiling of the motor-vehicle such that any forward mirror does not obstruct to capture the view appearing ahead of the motor-vehicle by the mirror disposed rearward thereto.

8. The viewing arrangement as claimed in anyone of the claims 1 to 7, wherein the ceiling of the motor-vehicle is configured with a profile to facilitate view capturing by each row of mirrors fitted thereon.

9. The viewing arrangement as claimed in anyone of the claims 1 to 8, wherein the floor of the motor-vehicle is configured with a profile to facilitate unhindered view to the passenger seated on any seat/row of the views captured by each concave/convex mirror mounted under the ceiling of the motor-vehicle.

10. A viewing arrangement for providing a see-through view ahead of the motor-vehicle to the rear-seat passenger/s normally blocked by the front seat and/or seat row, wherein the arrangement comprises:

• at least one concave and/or convex mirror fitted substantially under the ceiling of the motor-vehicle at a location suitable to capture the complete view appearing ahead of the motor vehicle through the windshield; and

• at least one mirror fitted substantially at the eye-level of the rear-seat passenger, the mirror being adaptable to the comfortable eye-level of the rear-seat/row passenger/s of different heights;

wherein the view captured by the mirror fitted under the ceiling is reflected on the mirror fitted behind the head-rest of the front-seat and/or front row of the motor vehicle to provide a see-through view of the scene appearing ahead of the motor vehicle captured through the windshield, the mirror being foldable and/or tiltable at an angle as per rear-seat/row passenger/s requirement or depending on the position of the seat of the passenger/s or driver sitting on the seat/row disposed forward of the rear-seat/row passenger/s.

Dated: this day of 01st July, 2015. SANJAY KESHARWANI
APPLICANT’S PATENT AGENT