Blind spots are dangerous. In the United States, about 4% of automobile accident fatalities -- or approximately 1,000 deaths each year -- are caused by blind spots. One man, Dr. R. Andrew Hicks, may have solved this problem with a complicated math algorithm and some inspiration from a disco ball.
Hicks is a math professor at Drexel University in Philadelphia whose research interests include geometry and optics. He used his skills to create a wide-angle mirror that takes away a driver's blind spot without distorting the view too much. He did this using many smaller mirrors to create the larger one. "Imagine that the mirror's surface is made of many smaller mirrors turned to different angles, like a disco ball," he said. "Each ray of light bouncing off the mirror shows the driver a wide, but not too distorted, picture of the scene behind him."
Side view mirrors are usually flat, giving the driver a field of vision that measures about 15 to 17 degrees. Hicks's version, however, has small curves in it, and this allows the driver's field of vision to increase to an estimated 45 degrees. Last month, Drexel University received a patent for Hicks's design.
Although the mirror appears to be an improvement on current car mirror technology, cars will not be able to use the invention as standard practice. As CNN explains, "U.S. regulations require new cars to have a flat mirror on the driver's side. Curved mirrors are allowed for passenger-side mirrors only if they include the phrase, 'Objects in mirror are closer than they appear.'"
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