Wednesday, July 27, 2005

Consumer's Eye

BabyCam watches kids in back seat

The dealer-installed $900 device will debut on Toyota sport utility vehicles and trucks.

By Anita Lienert / Special to The Detroit News

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As a parent, Mike Brock remembers taking his eyes off the road "too long" because he had to strain to turn around and see what his kids were doing in the back seat.

A new accessory that hit the market this month may make that task a bit less distracting.

The "BabyCam" is a sophisticated little device that projects an image of what's going on in the rear seat onto your rearview mirror. While we haven't had the chance to test it yet, it appears to be more streamlined than similar aftermarket gadgets that clip onto the rearview mirror.

The dealer-installed device costs approximately $900 and will debut on Toyota Motor Corp. sport utility vehicles and trucks, beginning in southeast states and gradually becoming available in the rest of the country. .

A tiny camera is mounted into the headliner of the vehicle near the dome light, the rear-seat DVD entertainment system or the B pillar. The camera is an inch-and-a-half in diameter and covered in beige or gray plastic, said Brock, vice president of automotive accessories for North Carolina-based Rostra, which developed BabyCam.

To monitor the kids, you touch a button on the rearview mirror. The camera's wide-angle view is transmitted to a 3.5-inch LCD color display built into the mirror.

Rostra says the rearview mirror that comes with BabyCam is slightly bigger than a conventional mirror. BabyCam fits vehicles from Toyota, Ford Motor Co. and DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler Group.

To find the local distributor nearest you, call (800) 782-3379. The company's Web site is www.rostra.com http://www.rostra.com/.

You can reach Anita Lienert at Conseye@aol.com.