Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation

Shigeo Sugihara

Tadaaki Masumori

Yuji Ooba

Shinichi Shiwa

A two-dimensional recording head is provided which controls respective windows of a liquid crystal cell array to open and close for light and can hold them in the opened and closed states. A light source is disposed at one side of the head, at the other side of which are disposed an image-forming lens system for exposing a recording medium to an image formed on the head by the opened and closed states of the windows. A controller is provided for controlling the quantity of light which is applied to the recording medium. The image is written into the head by a binary image signal and the exposure is started, with the written image held unchanged. The controller stops the exposure when the quantity of light applied to the recording medium reaches a predetermined value.

Recording apparatus and method utilizing an array of liquid crystal cells

A first transparent substrate has formed thereon a plurality of sequentially arranged first transparent electrodes and a plurality of individual cell drive lines each connected to one of them. A second transparent substrate has formed thereon at least one transparent electrode opposite the first transparent electrodes and first and second common drive lines each connected to one side of the second transparent electrode. The first and second transparent substrates are disposed opposite one another with a gap defined therebetween and the gap is filled with liquid crystal to form a liquid crystal cell array. Voltages of different magnitudes are applied to the first and second common drive lines to simultaneously form substantially the same voltage gradient in the second transparent electrode in all of cell windows, and at the same time, voltages corresponding to pixel signals are applied to the individual cell drive lines, respectively, thereby controlling the aperture ratios of all the cell windows. In driving a cell array using a two-frequency drive liquid crystal, in an operation mode for closing all the cell windows a low-frequency voltage is applied to the liquid crystal, and in an operation mode for diaphragming at least one of the cell windows, different high- or low-frequency voltages are applied to the first and second common drive lines, forming a high- or low-frequency voltage gradient in each cell window.

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Kunitachi, Japan

Shigeo Sugihara