Patent ID: 8791879

Claim:
A driving apparatus for driving a display optical device, said display optical device having (a) a variable-optical-characteristic layer with an optical characteristic which varies in accordance with a strength of an electrical field, (b) a plurality of pixel electrodes provided at respective pixel-electrode positions, and (c) a facing electrode having a position so as to face said pixel-electrode positions and so as to sandwich said variable-optical-characteristic layer, said driving apparatus comprising: a driving section configured to vary said optical characteristic of said variable-optical-characteristic layer in accordance with a moving-image signal by application of a voltage signal representing said moving-image signal between said pixel electrodes and said facing electrode; and an inversion control section configured to invert a polarity of said voltage signal applied between said pixel electrodes and said facing electrode, said inversion control section also configured to shift a phase of a polarity-switching control signal every phase change period, wherein, said phase change period includes a plurality of frame periods, and said driving section and said inversion control section are configured such that (i) during a first phase change period, said voltage signal representing said moving-image signal and having a first polarity is applied during one portion of each frame period and a voltage signal for a black image display is applied during another remaining portion of each frame period, and (ii) during a following second phase change period, said voltage signal representing said moving-image signal and having a second polarity opposite to the first polarity is applied during one portion of each frame period and said voltage signal for the black image display is applied during another remaining portion of each frame period.