Patent ID: 7719502

Claim:
A liquid crystal display device, comprising: a first substrate carrying a first electrode; a first alignment film formed on said first substrate so as to cover said first electrode; a second substrate carrying a second electrode and opposing said first substrate; a second alignment film formed on said second substrate so as to cover said second electrode; a liquid crystal layer sandwiched between said first and second substrates via respective alignment films; a first polarizer having a first optical absorption axis and disposed outside said first substrate; a second polarizer having a second optical absorption axis perpendicular to said first optical absorption axis and disposed outside said second substrate; and a drive unit applying a drive voltage signal to said first and second electrodes, said first and second alignment films causing liquid crystal molecules of said liquid crystal layer to align in a direction generally perpendicular to a plane of said liquid crystal layer in a non-activated state of said liquid crystal display device in which no drive voltage is applied across said first and second electrodes, said first electrode constituting a pixel electrode including therein regions characterized by different tilting directions of said liquid crystal molecules, said liquid crystal molecules being inclined in each of said plural regions in a predetermined direction pertinent to said region over generally entirety of a display region of said liquid crystal display device in said non-activated state thereof, said drive unit setting the voltage of a drive voltage signal, in the case of displaying a first gradation image having a first gradation and subsequently and continuously displaying a second gradation image having a second gradation, such that a magnitude of said drive voltage signal is increased larger than a predetermined voltage of said drive signal for said second gradation during a first frame interval of displaying said second gradation images wherein said drive unit determines a magnitude of said drive voltage signal of a current frame based on image data of a previous frame and image data of said current frame and wherein said drive unit determines the magnitude of said drive voltage signal of said current frame, when a gradation of a displayed image is changed from a first state to a second state, while using image data of the last frame in which said displayed image takes said first state and the image data of the first frame in which said displayed image takes said second state respectively for said image data of said previous frame and said image data of said current frame.