Blind Spot Mirror? Not Anymore

Dr R. Andrew Hicks, a math professor at Drexel University has successfully eliminates 'blind spot' in current design of side mirror by introducing a curved side mirror. Normal side mirror is often flat, giving you around 17 degrees field of view. This revolutionize side mirror, on the other hand, can give you field of view around 45 degrees, allowing you to see more as compared to flat side mirror.


The curvy side mirror might gave you a wider field of view but the visual distortion on the mirror which can make straight line looks curvy presents with great risks, hence no car companies want to try and use it. But Dr Hicks invention on the other hand is created with mathematical algorithm so that the visual distortion is minimized and in his invention, the curvy straight line is barely detectable, suggesting low visual distortion, but still, object appears in a distance when in reality it is much closer.

In the curvy mirror above, the silver car is seen at a distance but is much closer in reality. However, the field of view in above mirror allows driver to see details that aren't present in flat mirror.

The metaphor given by Dr Hicks to his invention is like disco balls bouncing off light. We can imagine the mirror's surface is created with thousands of smaller mirrors and the algorithm will manipulate each of these smaller mirrors' direction so that the resulting big mirror will give wider view to the driver without distorting the visual appearance on the mirror.

His invention though great, but it won't be installed in any new car soon because of US regulations that a car must have flat side mirror or a phrase 'Objects in mirror are closer than they appear' must be included for curve mirror. Nevertheless, this is a good invention to eliminate the high statistics of vehicle accidents in the whole wide world.