AUTOMOTIVE

Rearview mirror kit adds Bluetooth, GPS, multimedia playback and touchscreen gaming

November 21, 2011

The Complete Car Bluetooth Rearview Mirror Kit turns a rearview mirror into an in-car entertainment hub

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We've already seen rearview mirrors from the likes of Ford, Toyota and Mazda that display the vision from rear-mounted cameras, along with a GPS-enabled rearview mirror that includes a 4-inch touchscreen and Bluetooth. Now Hong Kong-based gadget wholesalers Chinavasion has started selling a kit that replaces any standard rearview mirror with a GPS and Bluetooth 2.1 enabled unit featuring a 4.3-inch touchscreen for multimedia playback and even playing touchscreen games (seriously), while DVR capabilities let you record what goes on inside and outside the car.

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The mirror is designed to fit over a standard factory mirror and requires no installation or setup. It comes with both a charger that plugs into a car's DC connector and a power cable for a more permanent connection to the car's battery. The GPS is powered by a SiRF Atlas VI chip and a Centrality Atlas 4 Dual-Core 500 MHz processor and is compatible with most brands of GPS software, including TomTom, iGO, Route66. However, hardware specific software - Garmin for example - might run into problems.

The unit's microphone and speakers allow users to make and receive hands-free calls and listen to music via a Bluetooth connected mobile phone, while the included waterproof wireless rearview camera helps negotiate parking. There's also a camera embedded in the mirror itself that can record video (AVI, MOV, ASF, MP4, WMV) at up to 640 x 480 resolution at 30 fps onto SD or Micro SD cards of up to 32 GB capacity. The DVR functionality lets users record interior and exterior sound and vision that could come in handy in the case of an accident.

The Complete Car Bluetooth Rearview Mirror Kit

Multimedia playback capabilities provide video entertainment via the 480 x 272 pixel 4.3-inch touchscreen, with touchscreen games also included - although it's hard to see how it would be comfortable playing a game with an outstretched arm reaching up to the mirror. The unit also supports MP4, AVI, MPG, WMV and 3GP video, MP3, WMA and WAV audio, BMP, JPG, PNG and GIF images, as well as TXT documents for a little light reading on the road.

While factory-installed car multimedia systems will generally only function when the car is stationary, since the Chinavasion kit isn't hardwired into the vehicle it seems drivers will have to exercise their own common sense when deciding when it's appropriate to enjoy some video entertainment.

Aimed at eBay sellers, the Complete Car Bluetooth Rearview Mirror Kit comes with a 4 GB Micro SD card and 4 GB SD card and sells from Chinavasion for around US$200 for a single unit with discounts for bulk purchases.

About the Author

Darren's love of technology started in primary school with a Nintendo Game & Watch Donkey Kong (still functioning) and a Commodore VIC 20 computer (not still functioning). In high school he upgraded to a 286 PC, and he's been following Moore's law ever since. This love of technology continued through a number of university courses and crappy jobs until 2008, when his interests found a home at Gizmag. All articles by Darren Quick

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6 Comments

Most of the features are cool, handy and very logical, but Touchscreen gaming on a rear view mirror must be made illegal.

That's the single most stupid idea I've read about on Gizmag in 2 years' membership

Nardu Malherbe
22nd November, 2011 @ 01:21 am PST

Nice! The gaming feature allows China to utilize natural selection to take out US citizens without firing a shot!

Brilliant.

Nonchalant Savant
22nd November, 2011 @ 09:13 am PST

i hope this works better than the picture in the article....the car is driving on a road with a solid yellow line but the rearview mirror shows a broken white line...

lee hughes
22nd November, 2011 @ 12:27 pm PST

It seems like a reasonable price for one gets for it. I think they should have left off the games since it would be a distraction.

BigWarpGuy
22nd November, 2011 @ 05:45 pm PST

Entertainment, really? 480x272 pixels? Joke...

And who needs to play music on a likely poor quality cheap speaker built into a mirror when most cars have far better audio?

The whole concept stinks, it's quite dangerous to control the functions via touchscreen above your head while driving. To do it, you should watch the mirror if you want to change anything and you can't focus on driving.

And what a great idea to playing video for the driver or offering game while driving. :(

Imhof Iván
24th November, 2011 @ 08:59 am PST

A device that enables the driver to watch a video or TV broadcast while driving should be illegal. Bad enough that people are distracted by their nicotine addiction, or eating a Big Mac, or texting, or just using a cell phone without a hands free setup. Most drivers have a difficult time driving even without distractions when moving down the freeway at 70mph and a 5 second delay in responding will mean the vehicle traveling an additional 500 feet before the drive starts to take their foot off the accelerator and starts to apply the brakes.

It is small wonder that we have a population with record levels of ADHD (though it helps keep the Republicans in office).

Calson
28th November, 2011 @ 11:16 am PST