Patent ID: 8310437

Claim:
A backlight device, comprising: a backlight including a plurality of light sources; and a backlight control part for controlling the backlight, wherein: the backlight includes a plurality of divided areas, and light sources disposed in each of the plurality of divided areas are chain-connected; the backlight control part comprises at least one backlight control means for controlling turning on and off of the backlight which includes the plurality of divided areas, with respect to the each of the plurality of divided areas; the at least one backlight control means comprises: selection means for selecting one of the plurality of divided areas; and at least one backlight drive path; and the selection means selects the one of the plurality of divided areas in a time division manner, and the light sources of the one of the plurality of divided areas are driven by sharing the at least one backlight drive path in common; wherein: the backlight control part comprises a plurality of backlight drive paths; each of the plurality of backlight drive paths has the light sources of the plurality of divided areas connected thereto; each of the plurality of backlight drive paths comprises means for controlling the light sources of each of different divided areas exclusively in each time; the light sources of the one of the plurality of divided areas are controlled by different backlight drive paths in the time division manner; the backlight device has the plurality of divided areas of the backlight which is divided in one of a longitudinal direction, a lateral direction, and a longitudinal direction and a lateral direction, and performs a scanning backlight (backlight scrolling) driving for sequentially turning on and off the each of the plurality of divided areas of the backlight which is divided in one of the longitudinal direction and the lateral direction; and each backlight control means is connected to the light sources of the plurality of divided areas in which the backlight is turned on and off at different timings, to thereby control the light sources of the each of the plurality of divided areas in the time division manner.