Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha Corporation

501 Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha

Masayuki Katagiri

Noritoshi Kako

Toshio Nomura

Takao Tagawa

Hitoshi Nohno

Masaya Hijikigawa

Kengo Takahama

Keisuke Iwasaki

Yoji Noguchi

Masanori Watanabe

Yasuhiko Inami

Shuhei Tsuchimoto

Masafumi Yamanoue

Kenji Sakamoto

Yoshiji Fujimoto

Hiroyuki Iwahashi

Naoyuki Fukuda

Kazutaka Uda

Shigeru Shibazaki

Kiyohiro Nozaki

Shunichi Miyako

Yukihiro Tsubosaka

Yoshikazu Taniguchi

Hirosi Tasiro

Masanori Watanaba

Shiro Taga

A keyboard slide mechanism for use in a keyboard that is so structured that key tops are raised and lowered as a sliding member is slid has a rotary member that can be rotated, converting means for converting the rotating movement of the rotary member into translating movement, and movement magnifying means for magnifying the translating movement produced by the converting means. The key tops are raised and lowered by converting the rotating movement of the rotary member into translating movement with the converting means, then magnifying the translating movement with the movement magnifying means, and then transmitting the magnified translating movement to the sliding member.

Keyboard slide mechanism

A portable information equipment has a main body portion and a display portion hinged each other. A space is secured in the display portion by using a cabinet for a reflection type liquid crystal display which requires no backlight instead of a liquid crystal display with backlight. The space is used for an additional internal battery. The additional internal battery increases an electric capacity to extend an operation time of the portable information equipment and need no externally attached extension battery.

Portable information equipment

In a coordinate detection period, a first electrode drive circuit sequentially selects source electrodes Sn of the TFT LCD panel to connect the same to an x-signal current amplifying circuit, and to apply an AC voltage to the non-selected electrodes. The x-signal current amplifying circuit detects a detection current flowing through the selected electrode, the magnitude of which corresponds to a distance to a finger (or a conductor pen), to obtain an x-coordinate detection voltage. A second electrode drive circuit and a y-signal current amplifying circuit operate in similar fashion to obtain a y-coordinate detection voltage. A coordinate detection circuit then obtains the x- and y-coordinate values of the designated position based on the x-coordinate detection voltage and the y-coordinate detection voltage, thus enabling pointing by a codeless pen and a finger.

Coordinate input device and display-integrated type coordinate input device capable of directly detecting electrostatic coupling capacitance with high accuracy

In a display-integrated panel having first and second electrodes crossing each other and being operable to display a gray scale image, a position indicated by an electronic pen is detected by a method including the step of displaying information on a display panel by repeating a step of displaying one frame. This step of displaying one frame includes the step of applying to the second electrodes second direction drive signals of predetermined waveforms in accordance with a predetermined order at timings shifted from each other, applying to the first electrodes first direction drive signals of waveforms corresponding to display intensities of pixels, respectively, thereby performing gray scale image display on each pixel, and simultaneously detecting the position of the electronic pen in the first direction based on a waveform of an induced voltage induced at the electronic pen by the second electrode located near the electronic pen; and the step of applying a voltage for position detection to the first electrodes in accordance with the predetermined second order, and detecting a position of the electronic pen in the second direction based on an induced voltage induced at the electronic pen by the voltage for the position detection.

Method of detecting a position indicated by an electronic pen in a

A stereoscopic image capture device of this invention includes: an image capturing face on which light from an object is incident; an optical element disposed on a side of the image capturing face on which the light is incident, the optical element converting an angle at which the light is incident thereon to a distance from an optical axis the optical element; and an afocal optical system including a plurality of lenses, wherein the afocal optical system forms, on the optical element, an image of the object formed on one of the plurality of lenses which is closest to the object.

Stereoscopic image capture device

An image input device includes a light source, a light guide for guiding the light, a first and a second low refractive index layer formed on surfaces of the light guide, the first and second low refractive index layers having a lower refractive index than that of the light guide, a light input device to make the light from the light source incident onto the light guide so that the incident light is totally reflected at the boundary of the light guide with the first or second low refractive index layer, a photoelectric converter, the photoelectric converter being disposed on the second low refractive index layer and an optical element having a plurality of lenses optically contacted with the surface of the light guide via the first low refractive index layer, the optical element taking out part of the light traveling in the light guide to illuminate a document and collecting reflected light from the document onto the photoelectric converter by means of the lenses.

Image input device having a refractive index light guide and lenses

An integrated image-input type display unit employs a conventional liquid crystal display panel and is capable of optically writing an original image directly at a high resolution into liquid crystal display panel and electrically reading the image. This unit has an image input/output device comprising a liquid crystal cell which contains light-sensitive molecules. The light-sensitive molecules are capable of changing their structure to a first molecular structure when being irradiated with light of a first wavelength range and to a second molecular structure when being irradiated with light of a second wavelength range, and are further capable of changing their alignment in accordance with the structural change of the light-sensitive molecules.

Integrated image-input type display unit

A three-dimensional display apparatus includes a liquid crystal panel 1 for displaying a discrete Fourier transformed image and a slit panel 2 having a convex lens function in a horizontal direction and a plurality of slits 3 arranged in a zig-zag manner, which is disposed in front of the liquid crystal panel 1. Since a spatial image is generated by such a configuration, a wide viewing region can be obtained. Since the number of slits positioned in the horizontal direction is increased as that of a slit pattern of a conventional slit array, the deterioration of resolution in the horizontal direction is reduced. Furthermore, since the slits are arranged in a zig-zag manner, the area of each light-shielding portion between sampling positions is reduced, thereby preventing an optical means from obstructing the observation of images.

Three-dimensional display apparatus with a wide viewing angle and

The present projection display apparatus includes an illumination source, an LCD panel including a polarizing plate, a light projecting and receiving combinational lens, a screen, a light pen, a detection-use polarizing plate, a CCD, and a control circuit for controlling an operation of the LCD panel upon receiving a signal from the CCD. The combinational lens throws light of a display image from the LCD panel to project the light on the screen. Meanwhile, the lens receives light from the display image and luminescent spot light from the pen to focus them on the LCD panel and then reflect the same to make them incident on the CCD via the detection-use polarizing plate. The detection-use polarizing plate does not transmit the light of the display image.

Portable projection display apparatus

There is reproduced a three-dimensional image in which there is no dimness or no cross talk and which is light and high in resolution, by a three-dimensional information reproducing apparatus comprising a liquid crystal panel for displaying a discrete Fourier transform image, a light source array which is disposed to the rear of the liquid crystal panel and which emits parallel light, and a synchronous control device for switching, with time division, the discrete Fourier transform image that is displayed in the liquid crystal panel and also an angle of the parallel light that is emitted from the source light array. No color dislocation occurs in a reproduced image, resolution is enhanced, and a light three-dimensional image is reproduced, by a three-dimensional information reproducing apparatus comprising a liquid crystal panel for displaying with time division a discrete Fourier transform image resolved into color components, an illumination device for changing a color of emitted light with time division, and a synchronous control device for synchronizing and switching the image that is displayed on the liquid crystal panel, and the color of the illumination device.

Three-dimensional information reproducing apparatus

A three-dimensional display unit has a liquid crystal panel for simultaneously displaying a plurality of different parallax images and an optical characteristic variable lens attached to the liquid crystal panel. The optical characteristic variable lens is formed by an array of cylindrical lenses such that a transparent substance having high flexibility is supported by transparent electrodes from both substance sides and optical characteristics of each of the cylindrical lenses can be changed by applying a voltage to the transparent substance to change at least one surface shape of the transparent substance. The three-dimensional display unit may have a head detecting section for detecting a spatial position of an observer's head; and a control section connected to the head detecting section and controlling an operation of the optical characteristic variable lens based on position information of the observer's head detected by the head detecting section such that a stereoscopic image is regenerated in an optimum position of the observer's head. Another three-dimensional display unit is also shown.

Three-dimensional display unit with a variable lens

There is provided an image input device-integrated type display device concurrently having an image display function, a document image input function, and a pen input function. A common electrode of the image input device-integrated type display unit is formed on a glass plate. A segment electrode is formed on a micro lens of a glass plate. An island electrode located at each pixel is connected to the segment electrode via a photoconductor. Liquid crystals are interposed between the common electrode and the island electrode. In an image input mode, light reflected on a document is applied to the photoconductor to control a voltage applied to the liquid crystals. In a pen input mode, light from an input pen is applied to the photoconductor to control a voltage applied to the liquid crystals. In an image display mode, a voltage applied to the liquid crystals is controlled according to image data of each pixel. Thus brightness data of the document, position data of the input pen, and image data corresponding to a display signal are written into the image input device-integrated type display unit.

Image input device-integrated type display device

An image processing apparatus comprises a liquid modulator having a photoconductive material including an image-writing plane, a liquid crystal layer laminated on the photoconductive material, a pair of electrodes sandwiching the photoconductive material and the liquid crystal layer, and a spacer inserted between the photoconductive material and one of the electrodes. Also provided are an analog writing system for analogously writing an original image in the light modulator; a digital reading system for digitally reading the image written in the light modulator; a processing section for image-processing the read image data; a digital writing system for digitally writing processed image data in the light modulator; and, an analog reading system for analogously reading an image written in the light modulator. The liquid crystal layer is either a phase-transition type liquid crystal, a p-type smectic A liquid crystal providing a storage function, or a ferroelectric liquid crystal providing a storage function. The phase-transition type liquid crystal is selected from a group consisting of (1) a p-type cholesteric liquid crystal and (2) a mixture of p-type cholesteric liquid crystal and p-type nematic liquid crystal. The ferroelectric liquid crystal is selected from a group consisting of (1) a chiral smectic C liquid crystal, (2) a mixture of chiral smectic C liquid crystal and non-chiral smectic C liquid crystal, and (3) a mixture of chiral smectic C liquid crystal and a photoactive material.

Image processing apparatus employing a spatial light modulator

An image processing apparatus is provided to have a spatial light modulator onto and from which an image data is written and read, a digital reading system for digitally reading an image data written on the spatial light modulator, a processing unit for processing the read image data, and a digital writing system for digitally writing the processed data on the spatial light modulator. The digital reading or writing system serves to two-dimensionally move a laser beam on the spatial light modulator for reading or writing an image data from or onto the spatial light modulator. The digital reading or writing system provides a hologram disk having hologram lenses located in a concentric or spiral manner. The hologram disk is arranged to deflect the laser beam vertically and horizontally for scanning the spatial modulating element.

Image process apparatus with hologram lenses arranged in a concentric

An image processing apparatus includes a light modulator, an analog writing system for analogously writing an image of an original in the light modulator, a digital reading system for digitally reading the written image out of the light modulator, a processing section for processing the read image data, a digital writing system for digitally writing the processed image in the light modulator, and an analog reading system for analogously reading the image written on the light modulator. The light modulator includes a photoconductive material, a liquid crystal layer laminated on the photoconductive material, and a pair of electrodes sandwiching the photoconductive material and the liquid crystal layer. The liquid crystal layer can provide a storage function so as to enable the reading and writing of the image from the same direction.

Growing community of inventors

Ikoma, Japan

Masayuki Katagiri