Patent ID: 8686989

Claim:
A liquid crystal shutter, comprising: a first liquid crystal panel having a pair of electrode substrates and a liquid crystal layer held between the electrode substrates and covering a left eye, the first liquid crystal panel being driven by the OCB mode capable of controlling transmissivity of light entering into the left eye; a second liquid crystal panel having a pair of electrode substrates and a liquid crystal layer held between the electrode substrates and covering a right eye, the second liquid crystal panel being driven by the OCB mode capable of controlling transmissivity of light entering into the right eye; and a drive portion to switch a normal drive and a retention drive of the first and second liquid crystal panels; wherein the normal drive switches the first and second liquid crystal panels between a transmissive state and a non-transmissive state respectively by applying a normal voltage in a pulse shape while the first and second liquid crystal panels are set in a bend alignment state, and the retention drive applies a retention voltage in a pulse shape having lower frequency than the normal voltage or lower voltage than the normal voltage to the first and second liquid crystal panels to maintain bend alignment, the retention voltage is made lower than the normal voltage to set the non-transmissive state of the first and second liquid crystal panels and higher than a critical threshold voltage in which the liquid crystal layer reverse-transits from the bend alignment state to a splay alignment state, and the retention voltage is formed in a pulse shape by gradually lowering the normal voltage to set the non-transmissive state so as not to be lower than the critical threshold voltage, and by gradually raising the normal voltage to set the transmissive state beyond the critical threshold voltage at a timing of changing from the normal drive to the retention drive.