Patent ID: 8860921

Claim:
A liquid crystal optical device comprising: a first substrate having transparent plural strip electrodes in respective given areas; a second substrate having a transparent common electrode; a liquid crystal layer between the first substrate and the second substrate in which a retardation distribution is controlled in respective given areas according to voltages to be applied between the common electrode and the plural strip electrodes; wall spacers provided at boundaries between one area of the given areas and another area adjacent to the one area in a first direction, the first direction being orthogonal to a second direction that is parallel to a longitudinal direction of the plural strip electrodes; and a shield electrode provided on at least one of two wall surfaces of each wall spacer, wherein, the liquid crystal optical device is configured to apply, during operation, a fixed value voltage to the shield electrode, the given areas are arranged in the first direction in a symmetric manner relative to a reference area, the reference area being located at a center of a group of the given areas, widths of the given areas vary inversely in relation to a distance from the reference area, and the plural strip electrodes in a given area differ from the plural strip electrodes in the reference area with respect to a number of the plural strip electrodes, widths of the plural strip electrodes, a pitch between the plural strip electrodes, or any combination thereof.