Patent ID: 7948580

Claim:
A liquid crystal display, comprising: a backlight; a display panel; a viewing angle control panel for controlling a viewing angle of the display panel; and a lens sheet provided either (i) between the backlight and the display panel which is provided so as to be closer to the backlight than to the viewing angle control panel, or (ii) between the backlight and the viewing angle control panel which is provided so as to be closer to the backlight than to the display panel, wherein the viewing angle control panel includes: a liquid crystal cell; and a driving circuit for applying a voltage to the liquid crystal layer, said liquid crystal cell including: a pair of light-transmitting substrates; and a liquid crystal layer, provided between the light-transmitting substrates, in which liquid crystal molecules are aligned vertically when no voltage is applied, and the liquid crystal cell of the viewing angle control panel being provided between two polarizing plates which face each other so that polarizing transmission axes are substantially orthogonal to each other, and the driving circuit causing an alignment of the liquid crystal molecules in the liquid crystal layer of the liquid crystal cell of the viewing angle control panel to be switched between a first alignment and a second alignment so that a display state is switched between a first viewing angle range and a second viewing angle range which is within the first viewing angle range and is narrower than the first viewing angle range, said first viewing angle range occurring when a first voltage is applied to the liquid crystal layer, and said second viewing angle range occurring when a second voltage that is different from said first voltage is applied to the liquid crystal layer, and said first alignment being an alignment in which molecular long axes of the liquid crystal molecules are parallel to surfaces of the light-transmitting substrates, and said second alignment being an alignment in which the molecular long axes of the liquid crystal molecules are slanted with respect to the normals of the light-transmitting substrates.