JPH11133403A - Display element - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a display element capable of executing multi-direction display for displaying different images in respectively different directions without dividing a display area. SOLUTION: Liquid crystal is sealed between a rear transparent substrate 12 provided with pixel electrodes 17 and a front transparent substrate 13 provided with a common electrode 25 and a microprism array 15 obtained by arranging long microprisms 28 each of which corresponds to two pixel strings in parallel over the whole display area is arranged in the front of the substrate 13. In the constitution, adjacent pixel strings can project respective display beams to respectively different directions. Thereby respectively different displays can be observed in accordance with positions for observing a liquid crystal display element 11.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a display device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, liquid crystal display elements have been used as display elements.
Due to its advantages such as low power consumption, low voltage operation, light weight, and thinness, its use is rapidly expanding to personal computers (PCs) and video equipment. In this liquid crystal display element, usually, electrodes are respectively formed on opposing surfaces of a pair of transparent substrates, and an alignment film for regulating the alignment direction of liquid crystal molecules is coated on both opposing surfaces of the transparent substrates. A liquid crystal is known in which a liquid crystal is sealed in a gap formed by a sealing material interposed therebetween so as to surround a display area.

[0003]

However, when such a liquid crystal display device is used as, for example, an in-vehicle display, a liquid crystal display device is required for viewing the display on the driver's seat side and viewing the display on the passenger's seat side. Due to the narrow viewing angle, there is a problem that it is difficult to see on one seat side depending on the orientation of the display surface, and there is an urgent need to improve the viewing angle characteristics. In the case of a liquid crystal display element applied to a display element of an in-vehicle navigation system using a satellite navigation system (GPS), for example, when a driver wants to see a map image on the driver's seat side and a television broadcast on the passenger's seat side, these are simultaneously displayed. It was difficult to see. If the screen is divided into two parts, each display area is also divided into two parts, so that the display area is reduced.

[0004] The problem to be solved by the present invention is that what means should be taken to obtain a display element capable of multi-directional display capable of displaying different images in different directions.

[0005]

According to the first aspect of the present invention,
A display element, a first image formed by a first pixel group subdivided over the entire display area, and a second pixel subdivided over the entire display area and different from the first pixel group. Display means for displaying the second image by the group substantially in synchronization with the entire display area, and image separation means for separating the first image and the second image in accordance with a direction with respect to the display means. , Is characterized by having. According to the first aspect of the present invention, it is possible to perform different displays depending on the viewing direction on one display unit. According to the first aspect of the present invention, different displays can be simultaneously viewed over the entire display area depending on the viewing direction.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the display device according to the first aspect, the display means is a liquid crystal display panel.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the display device, the image separating means is a prism for changing the traveling direction of the incident light into a plurality of directions. According to the third aspect of the invention, the display light of the first image and the second image mixed on one screen of the display means can be emitted in different directions by the spectral action of the prism, and the display area is reduced. You can view multiple images without having to.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the display means includes:
The pixel columns of the first pixel group and the pixel columns of the second pixel group are alternately arranged in a matrix, and the prisms respectively corresponding to two adjacent pixel columns are arranged in parallel. It is characterized by being.

According to the fourth aspect of the invention, by disposing the prisms corresponding to the two pixel rows, the display light in one pixel row and the display light in the other pixel row are separated by the spectral action of the prism. , Can be emitted in different directions. For this reason, by arranging the prisms corresponding to every two columns for all the pixel columns in the display region, it is possible to perform different displays without dividing the display region.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, details of a display element according to the present invention will be described based on embodiments shown in the drawings.

(Embodiment 1) FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing Embodiment 1 in which a display element according to the present invention is applied to a liquid crystal display element, and FIG. 2 is an explanatory view showing a drive circuit of the liquid crystal display element of this embodiment. is there. As shown in FIG.
1 is a rear transparent substrate 1 made of, for example, transparent glass or resin.
Liquid crystal 14 is sealed between the second side and the front transparent substrate 13 side,
On the front side of the front transparent substrate 13, a microprism array 15 as a spectral unit is arranged and roughly configured.

The structure of the rear transparent substrate 12 will be described. A rear polarizing plate 16 is disposed on the rear surface of the rear transparent substrate 12, and a backlight system (not shown) is disposed behind the rear polarizing plate 16. ing. 1 and 2, a substantially rectangular pixel electrode 17 made of a transparent electrode material such as ITO (indium tin oxide) is formed on the front surface of the transparent substrate 12 in a matrix pattern. Is formed. Further, as shown in FIG. 2, a thin film transistor (hereinafter, referred to as a TFT) Q as a switching element is formed on each pixel electrode 17 so as to be connected by a source electrode. Each TFT Q
Are connected to a scanning line (gate line) 18 and signal lines (drain lines) 19 and 20. Then, on the front surface of the transparent substrate 12 after the pixel electrodes 17 and the like are formed, a rear alignment film 21 is formed over the entire display area.

Next, the configuration on the front transparent substrate 13 side will be described. On the rear surface of the front transparent substrate 13, a black mask 22 is formed in a lattice shape so as to surround each pixel region corresponding to each pixel electrode 17 on the rear transparent substrate 12 side.
In addition, the front transparent substrate 13 on which the black mask 22 is formed
On the rear surface side, red (R), green (G), and blue (B) color filters 23R, 23G, and 23B are formed to be elongated along the row direction. These color filters 23R, 23
G and 23B are set to have widths corresponding to the pixel electrodes 17 in two rows. Further, the color filter 23
On the rear side of R, 23G, and 23B, a protective film 24, a common electrode 25 made of a transparent conductive material such as ITO, and a pre-alignment film 26 are sequentially laminated over the entire display area. On the other hand, a front polarizer 27 is disposed on the front side of the front transparent substrate 13. On the front surface of the front polarizing plate 27, the above-described microprism array 15 is arranged. The microprism array 15 is formed by adjacent microprisms 28 elongated in the row direction, and each microprism 28 is arranged so as to correspond to each color filter 23R, 23G, 23B. I have.

The microprism array 15 is arranged such that one of the three peripheral sides is parallel to the front transparent substrate 13 and has a cross section of an isosceles triangle. The cross-sections are arranged such that the peripheral side surfaces having isosceles sides respectively correspond to the same color filter.

Next, the operation and operation of the liquid crystal display element 11 of the present embodiment will be described. As shown in FIG. 1, by inputting different image signals to the respective pixel electrodes 17A and 17B in a pair of two pixel electrodes 17A and 17B adjacent to each other in the column direction corresponding to one microprism 28, The light that has passed through the liquid crystal 14 corresponding to the electrodes 17A and 17B is split into viewing angles in two directions by the microprism 28 and can be extracted as an image A and an image B to the left and right. In order to perform such liquid crystal driving, as shown in FIG. 2, a data line driving LSI 30 for outputting a driving signal of the image A to the odd-numbered data lines and an image B to the even-numbered data lines.
From the data line drive LSI 31 that outputs the drive signal of
A separate data line drive signal may be output simultaneously with the gate line drive signal output from the gate line drive LSI 29.

In the present embodiment, with such a configuration, different images can be viewed on the left and right sides of the liquid crystal display element 11. For this reason, when the liquid crystal display element 11 of the present embodiment is applied to, for example, a display element of an in-vehicle navigation system, when a driver wants to view different images such as a map image on the driver's seat side and a television broadcast on the passenger's seat side. At the same time. Therefore, two-screen display can be performed without reducing the display area by a method such as screen division.

As shown in FIG. 3, the liquid crystal display element 11 of this embodiment is not incorporated in a glasses-type case 32, and the data line driving LSIs 30, 3 shown in FIG.
By causing the liquid crystal display element 1 to output the right-eye video signal and the left-eye video signal separately, for example, a single liquid crystal display element 11 can display a stereoscopic video.

(Embodiment 2) FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing Embodiment 2 in which the display element according to the present invention is applied to a liquid crystal display element. As shown in FIG. 4, in the liquid crystal display element 11 of the present embodiment, the microprisms 28 corresponding to each of the color filters 23R, 23G, and 23B have a trapezoidal cross section, and images are formed in three directions, that is, the left-right direction and the front direction. It can be displayed. Each color filter 23R, 23G,
Three pixel electrodes 17C, 17A, and 17B are arranged in the width direction of each microprism 28 so that the pixel electrodes corresponding to 23B correspond to the upper bottom surface 28C of the microprism 28 and the two inclined surfaces 28A and 28B. ing.
In the rows of the pixel electrodes 17A, the rows of the pixel electrodes 17B, and the rows of the pixel electrodes 17C arranged in the longitudinal direction of the microprism 28, signal lines were drawn from different data line driving LSIs and connected to the respective TFTs Q. It has a configuration. That is, the circuit configuration has three data line driving LSIs. Note that other configurations in the present embodiment are substantially the same as those in the above-described first embodiment, and a description thereof will not be repeated.

In the present embodiment, the light is split using the microprism array 15 in the same manner as in the first embodiment.
Since the shape of 8 is trapezoidal, three-screen display is possible. Also, for example, by inputting the same signal to the pixel electrodes 17A, 17B, 17C, the same image can be viewed from the left, right, and front, so that the viewing angle can be improved.

(Embodiment 3) FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing Embodiment 3 in which the display device according to the present invention is applied to a liquid crystal display device. In the present embodiment, the cross section of the microprism 28 is the same as that of the first embodiment described above in that the cross section is an isosceles triangle.
The color filters of different colors correspond to the inclined surfaces 28A and 28B. That is, for example, as shown in FIG.
R and the slope 28A, and the pixel electrode 17B is set to correspond to the color filter 23B and the slope 28B. As shown in FIG. 5, the slopes 28A and 28B of the adjacent microprisms 28 are set so as to correspond to the same color filter. In the present embodiment having such a configuration, the left and right displays A,
Since B is a display corresponding to the R, G, and B color filters, color display is possible, and substantially the same display as in the first embodiment can be performed. In addition,
Other configurations in the present embodiment are substantially the same as those in the first embodiment. The operation and effect of the present embodiment are the same as those of the first embodiment.

(Embodiment 4) FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing Embodiment 4 in which the display element according to the present invention is applied to a liquid crystal display element. The configuration of the present embodiment is obtained by changing the cross-sectional shape of the microprism 28 from the isosceles triangle to the non-isosceles triangle in the liquid crystal display element 11 of the above-described first embodiment. 17 are set corresponding to the slopes 28A and 28B, the wider pixel electrode 17A corresponds to the wider slope 28A of one microprism 28, and the narrower slope is used. 28
The pixel electrode 17B having a narrow width corresponds to B. Other configurations are substantially the same as those of the first embodiment.

In the present embodiment, since the inclined surfaces 28A and 28B of the microprism 28 do not have an isosceles cross section, the inclination angle of the inclined surface 28A is different from that of the inclined surface 28B. Therefore, as shown in FIG. And the display B differ from each other in the viewing angle. Therefore, for example, by inputting a video signal to the pixel electrode 17A and inputting a character information (device information) signal to the pixel electrode 17B, it is possible to perform different displays on the left and right, such as a digital camera and a navigation system. In this case, character information (device information) display B and video information display A can be displayed simultaneously without switching screens. For example, for a digital camera,
As text information, the brightness of the subject, the distance to the subject,
Camera settings (squeeze value, flash ON / OF
F), the number of remaining images and the like can be set, and a subject image can be set as video information.

(Embodiment 5) FIG. 7 is an explanatory view showing Embodiment 5 of the display element according to the present invention. In the figure, reference numeral 31 denotes a display element, and a light emitting diode (LED) 3 is provided for each pixel.
2 are arranged so as to form a matrix with respect to the display surface. Further, a light-shielding plate 33 for preventing light from the light-emitting diodes 32 from leaking in the horizontal direction is interposed at the boundary between the light-emitting diodes 32. A microprism array 15 similar to that of the first embodiment is disposed on the tip end side of the light emitting diode 32 from which light is emitted, and two rows of light emitting diodes 32 are provided for each microprism 28.
Are set to correspond. The configuration of the microprism array 15 is such that the microprisms 28 having a cross section of an isosceles triangle are arranged in parallel, similarly to the first embodiment.

The display element 31 of the present embodiment can display different images in different directions by being applied to a large-sized display device such as an electric signboard. For example, the display element 31 is provided in a passage having traffic from both directions. By arranging the electronic bulletin board to which is applied, it is possible to perform display in the traveling direction. In addition, since one conventional electronic bulletin board can display two conventional displays, it is particularly effective when the display is installed on a wall having a small space.

Although the first to fifth embodiments have been described above, the present invention is not limited to these embodiments.
Various changes accompanying the gist of the configuration are possible. For example, in the above-described first to fourth embodiments, the present invention is applied to a liquid crystal display device having a color filter. However, it is needless to say that the present invention can be applied to a liquid crystal mode liquid crystal display device without a color filter. . In these embodiments, the display is performed in two directions. However, by changing the structure of the microprism as the spectral unit,
It is also possible to use a display element capable of displaying in three directions, four directions, and the like.

Further, in Embodiment 5 described above, a display element using an LED as a light-emitting display element is described. However, an EL light-emitting element using electroluminescence may be applied.

[0027]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, it is possible to realize a display element that can perform multidirectional display capable of displaying different images in different directions without dividing a display area. Become.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a liquid crystal display device according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a drive circuit diagram of the liquid crystal display element of the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing an application example of the liquid crystal display element of the first embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a liquid crystal display device according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing a liquid crystal display device according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing a liquid crystal display device according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing a display element according to a fifth embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 11 liquid crystal display element 12 rear transparent substrate 13 front transparent substrate 14 liquid crystal 15 microprism array 17 pixel electrode 28 microprism 31 display element 32 LED

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A first subdivided over an entire display area.
A first image of a pixel group and a second image of a second pixel group, which is subdivided over the entire display area and is different from the first pixel group, are substantially synchronized with the entire display area. A display element comprising: display means for displaying; and image separating means for separating the first image and the second image according to a direction with respect to the display means. 2. The display device according to claim 1, wherein said display means is a liquid crystal display panel. 3. The display device according to claim 1, wherein the image separation unit is a prism that changes a traveling direction of incident light into a plurality of directions. 4. The display means is arranged such that a pixel column of the first pixel group and a pixel column of the second pixel group are alternately arranged in a matrix form. The display device according to claim 3, wherein the corresponding prisms are arranged in parallel.