Patent ID: 8174494

Claim:
An electrophoretic display device comprising: an electrophoretic display panel that has a plurality of drive electrodes, a common electrode, and a plurality of electrophoretic particles disposed between the drive electrodes and the common electrode, and can update the display color of each display unit correlated to a particular drive electrode as a result of the electrophoretic particles moving according to a voltage applied between the drive electrode and the common electrode; and a drive control unit that applies voltage between the drive electrodes and the common electrode to update the display of the electrophoretic display panel; the electrophoretic display device being capable of displaying a first color, a second color, or at least one intermediate color between the first color and the second color in each of the display units; the drive control unit including a display color setting means that sets an updated display color, which indicates the color to be displayed after the display unit is updated, to the first color, the second color, or the intermediate color for each display unit, a display color evaluation means that determines for each display unit if the current display color, which is the color displayed before the display unit is updated, is the first color, the second color, or the intermediate color, a first pulse-applying means that applies a first pulse between the common electrode and the drive electrode of at least one display unit, a second pulse-applying means that applies a second pulse between the common electrode and the drive electrode of at least one display unit, and a third pulse-applying means that applies a third pulse between the common electrode and the drive electrode of at least one display unit; wherein to the display units of which the current display color is any intermediate color and the updated display color is set to any intermediate color, the first pulse-applying means applies the first pulse and changes said display units to the first color or second color, the second pulse-applying means applies second pulses that are opposite polarity to the first pulse in the same amount as the sum of the applied first pulses and the applied third pulses, and changes said display units to the first color or second color, and the third pulse-applying means applies third pulses of opposite polarity to the second pulses, and updates said display units to the set display color.