Patent ID: 8896772

Claim:
An optically variable device allowing the propagation of light to be controlled, comprising; a liquid-crystal element having optical properties controlling the propagation of light; two substrate plates placed on either side of the liquid-crystal element, the two substrate plates being covered with a first and a second control electrode, respectively, each electrode bounding an orifice forming a substantially circular optical aperture; and the device furthermore comprising a layer of a material filling the optical aperture bounded by each electrode, characterized in that the layer of material has a uniform sheet resistance of between 10 kΩ/square and 10 GΩ/square, in that at least the first electrode and the second electrode are identically divided into a number of facing portions forming subelectrodes suited to receiving different potentials at the same time, and in that on each substrate plate a resistive ring bounds the optical aperture and is controlled by the subelectrodes.