A Rearview Mirror On SteroidsA Rearview Mirror On Steroids

A small California company called Crimestopper plans to unveil at the Consumer Electronics Show next month a rearview mirror called the NavPro NP3000 series mirror that features an embedded 4.5-inch LCD display and GPS electronics. In addition to providing GPS directions, the small screen will show live video from a camera in the bumper whenever the car is going in reverse.

Pricing has not been announced.This aftermarket mirror "mirrors" what's happening in the new-car market. For example, the 2006 Prius features a screen with GPS and rearview video, but embedded in the dash, rather than the rearview mirror.

It's great to see both GPS and video camera technology becoming more mainstream. I assume that such functionality will be sold as standard equipment on most cars in just a couple of years -- great news for car-buying gadget geeks. Now if only I could see what's reflected in my rearview mirror...