Illuminator, image display, liquid crystal monitor, liquid crystal television, liquid crystal information terminal, and method for producing light guide plate

A lighting device comprising a light source;

• a light guiding plate that is disposed in such a manner that the light from said light source is allowed to enter the light guiding plate through an end face thereof;
• and a reflecting surface that is opposed to one major surface of said light guiding plate, characterized in that:
• the light guiding plate is adapted to scatter, at a certain rate, the light propagating through the light guiding plate, and
• the one major surface of the light guiding plate has a distribution and scattering structure formed thereon, the distribution and scattering structure being adapted to transmit the incident light to scatter it at a percentage that varies according to the distance from the light source.

A lighting device comprising a light source;

• a light guiding plate that is disposed in such a manner that the light from said light source is allowed to enter the light guiding plate through an end face thereof;
• and a reflecting surface that is opposed to one major surface of said light guiding plate, characterized in that:
• one major surface of the light guiding plate has a plurality of scattering regions that are adapted to scatter the incident light, each scattering region having an area ratio that varies according to the distance from the light source, and
• said plurality of scattering regions are made up of various kinds of materials that are different in scattering capacity from each other.

An image display comprising a lighting device;

• a liquid crystal display panel that is adapted to cause the light that comes out of said light device to travel through a liquid crystal layer forming a display screen with varied transmittance to display an image;
• and driving means that is adapted to alter the transmittance of said liquid crystal display panel to display an image corresponding to a video signal, characterized in that:
• the lighting device includes a light source;
• a light exit surface through which the light from said light source comes out;
• and luminance distribution alteration means that alters the luminance distribution on said light exit surface.

An image display comprising a lighting device;

• a liquid crystal display panel that is adapted to cause the light that comes out of said light device to travel through a liquid crystal layer forming a display screen with varied transmittance to display an image;
• and driving means that is adapted to alter the transmittance of said liquid crystal display panel to display an image corresponding to a video signal, characterized in that:
• the lighting device includes a light source;
• a light exit surface through which the light from said light source comes out;
• and luminance distribution alteration means that alters the luminance distribution on said light exit surface,
• the image display further comprising video signal synthesis means that synthesizes a plurality of video signals received thereby in order to display images corresponding to said plurality of video signals on a plurality of regions in a single screen and supplys the synthesized signal to the driving means as the video signal.

An image display comprising a lighting device;

• a liquid crystal display panel that is adapted to cause the light that comes out of said light device to travel through a liquid crystal layer forming a display screen with varied transmittance to display an image;
• and driving means that is adapted to alter the transmittance of said liquid crystal display panel to display an image corresponding to a video signal, characterized in that:
• the lighting device includes a light source;
• and a light exit surface through which the light from said light source comes out, said light source being made up of a plurality of light emitters, said plurality of light emitters being arranged in such a manner that the density thereof varies.