Patent ID: 8669973

Claim:
A liquid crystal display element comprising: two substrates facing each other; a liquid crystal layer sandwiched between the two substrates; and picture elements arranged in matrix, one of the two substrates being provided with picture element electrodes and a common electrode, each of the picture elements being divided up into a plurality of sub-picture elements, each of the plurality of sub-picture elements being provided with the common electrode and a corresponding one of the picture element electrodes in such a manner that the plurality of sub-picture elements have different distances between the common electrode and their corresponding ones of the picture element electrodes, at least two of the plurality of sub-picture elements each being provided with a switching element, and display being carried out such that: when an entire gray scale region in display is divided up into a low gray scale region, a middle gray scale region, and a high gray scale region, (a) display in the low gray scale region is carried out mainly by means of a sub-picture element among the sub-picture elements that are each provided with the switching element, in which sub-picture element the distance is short, (b) display in the middle gray scale region is carried out mainly by means of a sub-picture element among the sub-picture elements that are each provided with the switching element, in which sub-picture element the distance is long, and (c) display in the high gray scale region is carried out by means of the sub-picture element in which the distance is short and the sub-picture element in which the distance is long, each of the sub-picture elements being provided with the switching element.