Patent ID: 7728925

Claim:
A light source comprising: a backlight; a ray direction regulating element that regulates a direction of light made incident from the backlight and emits the light and in which a transparent area for transmitting light and an absorption area for absorbing light are formed alternately in a direction perpendicular to a light regulating direction thereof; and a transparent and scattering switching element that switches the light made incident from the ray direction regulating element so as to transmit source light and the light so as to be scattered, wherein in the transparent and scattering switching element, a polymer/liquid crystal composite layer, which included liquid crystal molecules and polymer, is sandwiched between a pair of flat electrodes, wherein the polymer/liquid crystal composite layer includes a high density portion where a density of the liquid crystal molecules is high and a low density portion where a density of the liquid crystal molecules is low, and wherein the high density portion and the low density portion are formed alternately in a direction perpendicular to the light regulating direction.