Backup camera
video camera attached to the back of the vehicle, used for backing up
A backup camera (also called a reversing camera or rear-view camera) is a video camera attached to the rear of a vehicle to aid in reversing, by reducing the rear blind spot and preventing crashes with pedestrians, vehicles and other objects. Backup cameras are usually connected to the vehicle's head unit display. A common variant is a surround-view system, which assembles a synthetic but positionally accurate top-down view of the vehicle and its surroundings.
Backup cameras have been regulated by law in Canada and the United States since 2018. Since May of that year, backup cameras have been required on all new vehicles sold in the United States.
Function
The design of a backup camera is distinct from other cameras because the image is horizontally flipped to produce a mirror image. This is necessary because the camera and the driver face opposite directions; without this adjustment, the camera's right would be on the driver's left and vice versa. A mirrored image makes the orientation of the display consistent with the physical mirrors installed on the vehicle.
Backup cameras typically have a wide-angle or fish-eye lens. Although such lenses may limit the camera's ability to capture distant objects, they allow the camera to see an uninterrupted horizontal path from one rear corner to the other.
“Backup camera” enters the record as video camera attached to the back of the vehicle, used for backing up. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Backup, camera and video can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Backup camera” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.