Travel monitor

Claim 1

In a viewing device that provides an illuminated enlarged display of a microimage, that has been selected from an elongated film strip which carries such images and is selectively moveable within a cassette between spaced reels carried within said cassette; the improvement of such a viewing device for use within an automotive vehicle, comprising in combination: the viewer including housing means; illuminating means including a light source and light collimating means, enclosed within said housing means and for directing and collimating light from said light source along a first optical axis, means for directing the collimated light through a selected portion of the film and the cassette therefor, and optical projection means, including lens means, mirror means, and a two element viewing screen sandwich that includes a Fresnel lens, in said housing means and for receiving the light that has passed through the film for passage through said lens means, along a second folded optical axis that lies in a projection plane that is transverse to said first axis, against spaced mirrors to effect enlargement of the illuminated image and to project said enlarged image onto said two-element viewing screen sandwich that includes a Fresnel lens; said housing means being shaped and constructed to provide, on the exterior of said housing means, an open sided recess that is edge-bounded by portions of said housing means and which is adapted to receive thereinto a cassette, said recess being aligned both with said first axis and with said projection plane; hooded light turning means on said housing means positioned within the confines of said recess for directing light from said illuminating means into said projection plane, said hooded means and the edge boundaries of the recess cooperating to provide a shaped recess for receiving thereinto a film-carrying cassette that is shaped to cooperate with said recess and hooded light turning means so as to be received and held in the recess at a pre-determined attitude, with a selected portion of the film strip positioned between said light turning means and said projection means, said arrangement permitting a person to selectively load a cassette into the viewer without opening the viewer; and means carried by the housing means and operatively associated with the reel-mounted film strip, when the cassette is operatively positioned within said recess, for selectively moving the film strip transversely of said second optical axis, whereby the enlarged display of microimages from said film strip may be viewed by a person controlling the vehicle for purposes of selecting a course for said vehicle from said enlarged display.