For those of you out there who at one point in their lives found out, to your surprise, that

your eyes
no longer serve their purpose as good as they used too, the invention of the dimming mirror must
have seemed as a Godsend gift. Driving during a dark, eerie night, on a road with no natural or man-
made lighting may be fun, as long as you and your car are the only ones on that road.

When "the others" come, things change. Most of you, we are sure, have experienced the transition
from enjoying the drive to panic. When an incoming vehicle approaches, its headlights turn into your
eyes' worst enemy. When it comes from the front, for brief, terrifying seconds, everything turns
black. When it comes from the rear, your field of vision retracts, desperately trying to battle the
glare of the other vehicle's headlights.

Of course, dimming mirrors are useful in all night driving conditions. Even in illuminated places,
incoming traffic may turn night driving into a tricky business, especially if you are short-sighted. In
this piece, we will try to explain you a bit of the technology behind this sometimes life saving, always
thrill-free innovation.

Technology

 In auto dimming mirror technology, a forward-looking sensor detects low ambient light from
headlights behind the car and directs the rear-view sensor to look for glare. The mirrors
darken automatically in proportion to how bright the glare is, then clear once the glare is no
longer detected. The technology is called electrochromics, which applies electricity in order
to tint glass through a low-voltage power supply. The electricity moves through an
electrochromic gel placed between two pieces of glass during manufacturing, which have
been treated with an electrically conductive coating. Electrochromic technology is also
increasingly included in building design with the use of so-called "smart windows," as an
energy-efficient response to light and heat.

Glare Elimination
 Auto dimming rear-view mirrors, both the interior mirror at the top of the windshield and the
exterior side mirrors, increase driving safety by eliminating glare that can impair vision.
Headlight glare in the mirrors from trailing vehicles can make it very difficult to see the road
in front. This is particularly dangerous on dark rural highways with cross-traffic, and areas
where deer and other animals may dart across the road.

he Benefits of an Auto-Dimming Mirror

⌕ Troxler fading effect - click to enlarge and test

Dimming mirrors are intended to counteract the Troxler fading effect. This phenomenon occurs
when you try to focus your vision to a single point in space for more than 20 seconds. This will make
a stimulus outside the range of sight fade away (try focusing on the point in the adjacent picture for
10-15 seconds and see how the circle disappears).

For drivers, the Troxler fading occurs after the glare source has left the field of vision. Those of you
who drove at night on dark roads know that is not the light from incoming traffic which posses the
biggest problems, but the seconds after that light has disappeared, leaving utter darkness in its
wake.

According to studies conducted to reveal glare effects on the eyes of the drivers have shown
that the Troxler effect increases driver reaction time by up to 1.4 seconds. This means that when
traveling at 60 mph (100 km/h), it would take you 123 feet (38 meters) to see and react to road
hazards. That's 123 feet more than without experiencing Troxler fading or 123 feet of blind
driving.

What are they?

A dimming mirror is just a piece of glass, but with some interesting characteristic. Dimming glass is
called in different ways, depending on who and how they make it: smart glass, SPD glass,
photochromatic, liquid crystal, thermotropics, electrochromic and so on. Regardless of the names
use for it, the glass' main feature is the ability to turn from clear to tinted, colored or opaque when
subjected to light.

In the automotive industry, the technology used for the creation of dimming mirrors is
calledelectrochromism and the resulting glass electrochromic.

How does it work

In order for the dimming mirror to be effective, something must tell it when its time to act. Dimming
mirrors used in the automotive industry are fitted with sensors to detect the intensity of the light.
Usually, there are two sensors, one pointed to the front and the other to the rear. The interior
mirror's sensors and electronics control the dimming of both interior and exterior mirrors.
The sensors, when active, are constantly looking for low ambient light. Poor lighting tells the sensors
you are driving at night and they begin looking for a glare source which may impair your vision.

When they detect a change in light intensity, they trigger an electrical charge to be applied to the
glass through a low-voltage power supply. The electricity travels through an electrochromic gel in
between the two electrically conductive coated pieces of glass which make up the mirror.

As a result, the mirror darkens proportionally to the light detected by the sensors. When the glare is
no longer detected, they revert to their idle status.

History

The one credited with the invention of electrochromic mirrors is a Michigan based company
called Gentex. Gentex introduced the first dimming rear view mirror in 1982, but it was only in
1987 when the first electrochromic-based dimming technology came to be. At the time, such
mirrors were available only for interior use, the exterior versions of the technology being
developed only in 1991.
AUTO DIMMING MIRRORS

If you’ve ever driven at night, then I’m sure you’ve been in a situation where somebody’s headlights
are just bright enough or just at the right level, creating an awful glare in your rear view mirror.
While this can be extremely annoying and uncomfortable for you as the driver, it can also be
extremely dangerous. And, that’s why we highly recommend installing an auto-dimming mirror in
place of your self-dimming rear view mirror.

THE BENEFITS OF AN AUTO-DIMMING MIRROR

An auto dimming rear view mirror does all the work for you, so you can concentrate on the road
ahead. You may be skeptical as to how auto-dimming mirrors work, but it’s actually pretty simple.
An auto dimming rear view mirror senses ambient light and then fine-tunes the glass’s tint. So, if
extra bright beams come up behind you, you’ll never even know— your mirror will automatically
adjust before you have a chance to notice.