Information display apparatus

An information display apparatus comprising:

• a liquid crystal display comprising a liquid crystal material, a plurality of scan electrodes and a plurality of data electrodes, said liquid crystal material exhibiting, at room temperature, a cholesteric phase in which said liquid crystal material has a bistability between a focal-conic state and a planar state in which said liquid crystal material exhibits a selective reflection characteristic, said scan electrodes and said data electrodes defining a plurality of liquid crystal pixels;
• a driver comprising a scan electrode driver and a data electrode driver, said scan electrodes driver including a shift register and a plurality of output terminals respectively connected to said scan electrodes, said data electrode driver including a shift register and a plurality of output terminals respectively connected to said data electrodes to drive said liquid crystal display;
• and
• a controller which is connected to said driver, said controller being capable of controlling said driver to repeatedly select only part of the scan electrodes by controlling the shift register of the scan electrode driver to perform writing on only part of the pixels of the liquid crystal display corresponding to the selected scan electrodes;
• wherein:
• writing is performed repeatedly on the part of the pixels of the liquid crystal display corresponding to the selected scan electrodes;
• and
• the part of the pixels of the liquid crystal display which does not correspond to the selected scan electrodes and which maintains a display by use of a memory effect of the liquid crystal includes pixels making displays of intermediate tones.

An information display apparatus comprising:

• a liquid crystal display comprising a liquid crystal material, a plurality of scan electrodes and a plurality of data electrodes, said liquid crystal material exhibiting, at room temperature, a cholesteric phase in which said liquid crystal material has a bistability between a focal-conic state and a planar state in which said liquid crystal material exhibits a selective reflection characteristic, said scan electrodes and said data electrodes defining a plurality of liquid crystal pixels;
• a driver comprising a scan electrode driver and a data electrode driver, said scan electrodes driver including a shift register and a plurality of output terminals respectively connected to said scan electrodes, said data electrode driver including a shift register and a plurality of output terminals respectively connected to said data electrodes to drive said liquid crystal display;
• and
• a controller which is connected to said driver, said controller being capable of controlling said driver to repeatedly select only part of the scan electrodes by controlling the shift register of the scan electrode driver to perform writing on only part of the pixels of the liquid crystal display corresponding to the selected scan electrodes;
• wherein:
• said driver performs repetitious writing on said part of the pixels of the liquid crystal display corresponding to the selected scan electrodes by applying voltage pulses including a reset pulse to reset the liquid crystal to a homeotropic state and a selection pulse to select a desired display state of the liquid crystal, the voltage pulses including the reset pulse and the selection pulse being applied to each of the selected scan electrodes sequentially for repetitious writing;
• and
• the part of the pixels of the liquid crystal display which does not correspond to the selected scan electrodes and which maintains a display by use of a memory effect of the liquid crystal includes pixels making displays of intermediate tones.