JPH05264952A - Electronic white board device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain the electronic white board device which has shock resistance, is stable in its display, strong against damage and excellent in safety, and in which a visual field angle is wide and its display is easily visible by constituting its display part by a display element formed by inserting and holding a liquid crystal material containing a ferroelectric high polymer liquid crystal by a resin substrate. CONSTITUTION:A main body of the electronic white board device is constituted like a rectangular and horizontal board, and almost the whole surface becomes a liquid crystal display part 2 of a large screen. In the main body, an IC chip 7 consisting of a CPU 3, a memory 4, interfaces 5, 29, a driving/image signal processing circuit 6 for a liquid crystal, and an input signal circuit 20 for a touch panel 21 is contained. A ferroelectric liquid crystal material of the liquid crystal display part 2 is inserted and held by two pieces of resin substrates provided with a transparent electrode, and connected to the IC chip 7 through the transparent electrode. When a liquid crystal display element containing a high polymer ferroelectric liquid crystal is used as a liquid crystal material of the liquid crystal display part 2, strength against external force such as a shock and bending, etc., and durability can be improved.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic whiteboard device for use in meetings, lectures, etc., and more particularly to an electronic whiteboard device having a liquid crystal display element as a display section.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, a white board can be used to write characters on a board surface by using an erasable chalk. With such a white plate, when erasing a character, it is complicated because the character must be erased by hand each time. Also,
It is impossible to keep an electronic record of what you write.
Further, although an apparatus capable of hard copying information written on a white board has been put into practical use, it is necessary to wind the film on which characters have been written on the reading side, and it is difficult to immediately record the film. Therefore, it is possible to construct an electronic whiteboard device by combining a liquid crystal display panel and a touch panel.

[0003]

However, the liquid crystal display panel using the low molecular weight liquid crystal material currently used has the following problems, and it is difficult to use the liquid crystal display panel for an electronic white board. there were. When the glass substrate becomes large, the rubbing orientation process becomes non-uniform, and the substrate is easily broken when the liquid crystal material and the substrate are bonded together, so that it is not possible to make the screen large enough to constitute an electronic white board. When it is attempted to construct a large-screen display panel using a resin film as a substrate, unevenness in thickness occurs in the liquid crystal panel, resulting in non-uniform display. When a shock or pressure is applied to the liquid crystal display panel, the orientation of the molecules is disturbed, so that the liquid crystal display panel must be handled so that a large shock or pressure is not applied, which is inferior in practicality. Since a flat glass plate is used as the substrate, it lacks safety when damaged. In addition, the liquid crystal panel configured by sandwiching it between glass substrates has a large thickness, and since the distance between the polarizing plates is large and the optical path length is long, the viewing angle of the display section is narrow and The display is difficult to read when viewed.

The present invention has been proposed in order to solve the problems of the prior art, and a liquid crystal display panel is constructed by using a ferroelectric polymer liquid crystal material, so that a large screen can be obtained. It can be configured, has excellent impact resistance, the orientation of liquid crystal molecules is stable, and because it does not use a glass flat plate as a substrate, it can be made thinner and is less likely to be damaged even when shock is applied. It is an object of the present invention to provide an electronic whiteboard device having many features such that the distance between a polarizing plate and a polarizing plate is reduced and the optical path length can be shortened, so that the display section has a wide viewing angle and the display is easy to see.

[0005]

To achieve this object, an electronic whiteboard device according to the present invention comprises a liquid crystal display element in which a liquid crystal material containing a ferroelectric polymer liquid crystal is sandwiched between resin substrates to form a display section. If necessary, a touch panel is integrally provided on the display unit so that a touch operation on the touch panel enables direct writing to the display unit, or a terminal that can input / output information to / from the outside. Is provided.

[0006]

According to the above-described electronic whiteboard device of the present invention, it is possible to provide an electronic whiteboard device that makes use of various characteristics of the dielectric polymer liquid crystal, and since the electronic whiteboard device is equipped with a touch panel, the touch panel is pressed. Characters and the like can be directly written in the display unit by an operation, or a terminal for inputting / outputting external information is provided, so that display information can be taken in from the outside or the contents written in the white board can be output to the outside.

[0007]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Specific embodiments of the electronic whiteboard device according to the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows a schematic perspective view of the electronic whiteboard device, and FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of the electronic whiteboard device. In these figures, the main body 1 of the electronic white board device is formed in a rectangular board shape that is horizontally long, and the entire surface of the hollow is a large-screen liquid crystal display section. The main body 1 includes a CPU 3, a memory 4, interfaces 5 and 2.
9. An IC chip 7 including a drive image signal processing circuit 6 for liquid crystal and an input signal processing circuit 20 for touch panel is built in.

A computer 8 is provided on one side of the main body 1.
An external input / output terminal 10 is provided for fetching external information sent from a signal cable 9 to the CPU 3 via the interface 5 and writing it to the built-in memory 4 or outputting data from the CPU 3 to the outside. .. The information captured in the memory 4 can be processed by the CPU 3 and displayed on the liquid crystal display unit 2 via the drive image signal processing circuit 6. Thereby, when this electronic white board is used only for display, it can be used as an electronic screen.

A touch panel 21 is integrally arranged on the upper layer portion of the liquid crystal display unit 2, and operation information of the touch panel 21 is fetched by the CPU 3 via the input signal processing circuit 20. When the touch panel 21 is pressed from above, the pressing information is processed by the CPU 3 and characters or the like can be directly written on the display unit 2. Characters and symbol information written on the display unit 2 are stored in the memory 4 via the CPU 3.

A transmitter / receiver 31 for wirelessly transmitting / receiving data to / from an external transmitter / receiver 30 is provided in the main body, and the data exchanged by the transmitter / receiver 31 is input to the CPU 3 via the interface 29. Is output.

Information can be exchanged with the outside using the external input / output terminal 10 and the transmission / reception section 31 by operating the key operation section 11. For example, the display contents stored in the memory 4 can be sent to the external computer 8 or printer via the external input / output terminal 10 or the transmission / reception unit 31 by operating the key operation unit 11. Power is supplied to the liquid crystal display unit 2, the built-in IC chip 7, the transmission / reception unit 31, and a backlight 32 described later by using the commercial AC power supply 12.
From the power supply circuit 13 for converting the power into a power supply for power supply.

The liquid crystal display section 2 is composed of a liquid crystal display element containing a ferroelectric polymer liquid crystal material described later. As a drive circuit for driving this liquid crystal display element, a circuit based on a drive method similar to the drive method for a low-molecular ferroelectric liquid crystal can be used. In the case of the dot matrix method, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 1-26543 and 1
The driving method described in the publication of -97445 can be used, and a known driving method can be used even in the case of the segment method. Existing TN for these circuit configurations
A driver driver IC for cells and various general-purpose ICs can be used.

FIG. 3 shows an IC of the electronic whiteboard device shown in FIG.
The partial cross-sectional view which connects the chip 7 and the liquid crystal display part 2 is shown. In this figure, the ferroelectric liquid crystal material 14 of the liquid crystal display unit 2 is sandwiched by two resin substrates 16 having transparent electrodes 15, and is connected to the IC chip 7 via the transparent electrodes 15. .. Reference numeral 17 is an adhesive, and 18 is a polarizing plate. Reference numeral 19 is a main body case. A touch panel 21 is integrally arranged on the display surface side of the upper polarizing plate 18. The touch panel 21 is configured such that a substrate 25 having a transparent electrode 24 on the lower surface is opposed to an upper polarizing plate 18 having a transparent electrode 23 on the upper surface with a spacer 26 interposed therebetween. The pressed position of the touch panel 21 is detected by the input signal processing circuit 20 as a coordinate position on the display surface, and the CPU 3 processes this position information so that when the touch panel 21 is pressed, characters or the like can be immediately written on the display unit 2. The touch panel 21 can have any structure described in various documents. In addition, the number of the polarizing plate 18 may be one, and a reflecting plate may be provided on the outer side of the back surface.

When the backlight 32 is provided on the back surface of the lower polarizing plate 18, the liquid crystal display section 2 can be illuminated from the back surface by the light of the backlight 32.

Examples of the resin substrate 16 include crystalline polymers such as uniaxially or biaxially oriented polyethylene terephthalate, amorphous polymers such as polysulfone and polyethersulfone, polyolefins such as polyethylene and polypropylene, and polyamides such as polycarbonate and nylon. Can be used.
By using such a flexible substrate, the display surface of the liquid crystal display element can be curved, and a liquid crystal display element having a large area and capable of curved display can be obtained.

The electrodes 15 formed on the substrate 16 may be those commonly used in liquid crystal display devices, and may be transparent or semitransparent.
For example, a film made of a NESA film or an ITO film can be used. The electrode pattern may be a stripe shape for dot matrix display or a segment display pattern depending on the required display content. Also,
You may mix these patterns.

As a method for sandwiching the liquid crystal composition with the electrode-attached substrate 16, a known method can be applied without particular limitation. In particular, since a flexible substrate is used, the method of continuously applying the liquid crystal composition to the electrode-attached substrate 16 and laminating it on the counter substrate is excellent in productivity. Further, the liquid crystal display device is preferably subjected to horizontal alignment treatment so that the smectic layer normal of the liquid crystal composition is in the vertical direction of the liquid crystal display device. By doing so, the viewing angle in the horizontal direction is widened, and the display can be easily viewed even in the oblique direction.
The alignment treatment method is not particularly limited, but if a mechanical alignment method such as a bending alignment method (described in JP-A No. 2-10322), which is excellent in continuous and high-speed productivity, is used, alignment control of a rubbing film or the like is performed. Membranes can be eliminated. As the transparent electrode 15, for example, a tin oxide film called an NESA film, an indium oxide film mixed with tin oxide called an ITO film, an indium oxide film, a vapor deposition film of gold or titanium, or another thin metal film. Alternatively, an alloy or the like can be used.

When a liquid crystal display element containing a polymer ferroelectric liquid crystal is used as the liquid crystal material of the liquid crystal display section 2, the strength and durability against external force such as impact or bending can be improved. Further, the memory property of the ferroelectric liquid crystal can be utilized, power consumption can be reduced, and a liquid crystal display element in which the display does not disappear even after the power is turned off can be configured. Examples of the ferroelectric polymer liquid crystal include, for example, one or more kinds of ferroelectric polymer liquid crystals, one or more kinds of ferroelectric low-molecular liquid crystals, and one or more kinds of ferroelectric polymer liquid crystals. And a ferroelectric polymer liquid crystal comprising one or more kinds of ferroelectric low-molecular liquid crystal and one or more kinds of other polymer liquid crystal. That is, as the ferroelectric polymer liquid crystal, the ferroelectric polymer liquid crystal (homopolymer or copolymer, or a mixture thereof) in which the polymer molecule itself exhibits ferroelectric liquid crystal characteristics, the ferroelectric polymer liquid crystal and other Mixture of high molecular liquid crystal and / or ordinary polymer, mixture of ferroelectric high molecular liquid crystal and ferroelectric low molecular liquid crystal, ferroelectric high molecular liquid crystal and ferroelectric low molecular liquid crystal and high molecular liquid crystal and / or It is possible to use all polymer liquid crystals exhibiting ferroelectricity, such as a mixture with a usual polymer or a mixture of these with a usual low-molecular liquid crystal.

Among ferroelectric polymer liquid crystals, side chain type ferroelectric polymer liquid crystals having a chiral smectic C phase can be preferably used. Further, the ferroelectric liquid crystal composition may contain an adhesive, a viscosity reducer, a non-liquid crystal chiral compound, a dye, etc., if necessary. The thickness of the liquid crystal layer is not particularly limited, but is preferably 1 to 10 μm, and particularly 1.
The thickness is preferably 5 to 3 μm. Examples of the ferroelectric liquid crystal polymer include acrylate main chain liquid crystal polymer, methacrylate main chain liquid crystal polymer, chloroacrylate main chain liquid crystal polymer, oxirane main chain liquid crystal polymer, siloxane main chain liquid crystal polymer, and siloxane-olefin. A main chain liquid crystal polymer and an ester main chain liquid crystal polymer are included.

[0020]

[Chemical 1]

[0021]

[Chemical 2]

[0022]

[Chemical 3]

[0023]

[Chemical 4]

In the repeating unit of the above-mentioned ferroelectric liquid crystal polymer, the side chain skeleton may be replaced with a biphenyl skeleton, a phenylbenzoate skeleton, a biphenylbenzoate skeleton, or a phenyl 4-phenylbenzoate skeleton. The benzene ring in the skeleton is a pyrimidine ring, a pyridine ring, a pyridazine ring, a pyrazine ring, a tetrazine ring,
It may be replaced with a cyclohexane ring, a dioxane ring or a dioxaborinane ring. It may be substituted with a halogen group such as fluorine or chlorine, or a cyano group, and may be a 1-methylalkyl group, a 2-fluoroalkyl group, a 2-chloroalkyl group, a 2-chloro-3-methylalkyl group, a 2-trifluoro group. Methylalkyl group, 1-alkoxycarbonylethyl group, 2-alkoxy-1-methylethyl group, 2
It may be replaced with an optically active group such as -alkoxypropyl group, 2-chloro-1-methylalkyl group, 2-alkoxycarbonyl-1-trifluoromethylpropyl group. Further, the length of the spacer has a methylene chain length of 2 to 30.
May vary within the range. The number average molecular weight of the ferroelectric liquid crystal polymer is preferably 1,000 to 200,000. Examples of the ferroelectric low-molecular liquid crystal compound include Schiff base-based ferroelectric low-molecular liquid crystal compounds, azo and azoxy-based ferroelectric low-molecular liquid crystal compounds, biphenyl and aromatics ester-based ferroelectric low-molecular liquid crystal compounds, and halogens. Examples thereof include a ferroelectric low-molecular liquid crystal compound having a ring substituent such as a cyano group and a ferroelectric low-molecular liquid crystal compound having a heterocycle.

[0025]

[Chemical 5]

[0026]

[Chemical 6]

[0027]

[Chemical 7]

[0028]

[Chemical 8]

These compounds are representative examples of ferroelectric low molecular weight liquid crystal compounds, and the ferroelectric low molecular weight liquid crystal compounds used in the present invention are not limited to these structural formulas. The ferroelectric liquid crystal material is preferably one that has been stretched by a cast-stretching method or the like, or applied by roll coating or the like, and subjected to orientation treatment. As the adhesive 17, for example, an epoxy type is used.

In the electronic whiteboard device according to the present invention, for example, a step of patterning an electrode corresponding to the liquid crystal display section 2 and a drive circuit section on the electrode surface of the substrate 16 with a transparent electrode,
It can be manufactured by the manufacturing method shown in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-208096, which includes a step of applying a ferroelectric liquid crystal material to the liquid crystal display portion 2 on the electrode surface of the substrate 16.

In the above embodiment, the electronic white board has been described, but it can be used as an electronic blackboard if it is manufactured in a negative type.

[0032]

As described above, according to the present invention, the following effects can be obtained by configuring the electronic whiteboard device with the liquid crystal material containing the ferroelectric polymer liquid crystal. A large screen display can be configured. Since the orientation of the molecules is not disturbed even when shock or pressure is applied,
It has excellent impact resistance and is practical. Since the glass substrate is not used, the thickness of the display portion can be reduced, and it is safe and hard to break. The display section has a wide viewing angle and is bright, making it easy to read the display contents.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a part of an electronic whiteboard device according to the present invention by cutting away.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the electronic whiteboard device.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of essential parts of the electronic whiteboard device shown in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Main body 2 ... Liquid crystal display part 3 ... CPU 4 ... Memory 7 ... IC chip 10 ... Input / output terminal 11 ... Key operation part 12 ... Solar cell 14 ... Ferroelectric liquid crystal material 15 ... Transparent electrode 16 ... Resin substrate 18 ... Polarized light Plate 19 ... Resin case 21 ... Touch panel 30, 31 ... Transceiver 32 ... Backlight

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁵ Identification code Internal reference number FI Technical indication H04N 1/00 H 7046-5C

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An electronic whiteboard device comprising a liquid crystal display element formed by sandwiching a liquid crystal material containing a ferroelectric polymer liquid crystal between resin substrates. 2. The electronic whiteboard device according to claim 1, wherein a touch panel is integrally provided on the display unit, and writing can be directly performed on the display unit by pressing the touch panel. 3. The electronic whiteboard device according to claim 1, further comprising an input / output terminal capable of exchanging information with the outside.