Abstract: The object of the present invention is to provide a producing method for a lengthwise optical laminate exhibiting high contrast ratio and adaptable to a large-sized display. The present invention provides a producing method for a lengthwise optical laminate, which comprises a step 1 of coating and drying a coating solution comprising a birefringent material and a solvent on a surface of a lengthwise base material to form a birefringent film such that a birefringence index (Anxz[590]) in the thickness direction at a wavelength of 590 nm is 0.

Abstract: The production method for a broadband cholesteric liquid crystal film having a reflection bandwidth of 300 nm or more includes the steps of: applying a liquid crystal composition containing a polymerizable mesogenic compound (a), a polymerizable chiral agent (b), and a thermal polymerization initiator (c) onto an alignment base material ; and providing a broadband characteristic to the liquid crystal composition through thermal polymerization, and has the following feature (i) or (ii). (i) The thermal polymerization initiator (c) is contained in the liquid crystal composition at a ratio of 0.2 to 4 parts by weight with respect to 100 parts by weight of a total of the polymerizable mesogenic compound (a) and the polymerizable chiral agent (b). (ii) The thermal polymerization is carried out at a heating temperature of 70 to 150° C. under an inert gas atmosphere containing oxygen at an oxygen concentration of 5 vol % or less.

Abstract: There is provided: an optical film suitable for a liquid crystal display apparatus providing a colorless neutral display in all azimuth angle directions; a liquid crystal panel employing the optical film; and a liquid crystal display apparatus employing the liquid crystal panel. An optical film includes a transparent protective film, a polarizer, and a birefringent layer having a relationship of nx>ny=nz and positive uniaxial property, in the stated order, in which the polarizer and the birefringent layer are laminated directly through one of a pressure-sensitive adhesive and an adhesive.

Abstract: A liquid crystal panel according to the present invention includes a backlight portion emitting light having a brightness distribution in a horizontally oblong oval shape assuming that a longitudinal direction of a panel is a horizontal direction; a first polarizer; a liquid crystal cell; an optical compensation layer having a refractive index profile of nx>ny>nz; and a second polarizer, in this order from a backlight side. According to the present invention, a liquid crystal panel having remarkably excellent contrast in an oblique direction, small light leakage in a black display and a small color shift is provided.

Abstract: A liquid crystal display apparatus of the present invention includes: a liquid crystal cell including a pair of substrates provided with a color filter on one substrate, and a liquid crystal layer as a display medium provided between the substrates; and an optical compensation element including at least an optical compensation layer. The optical compensation element is arranged on the same side as the color filter with respect to the liquid crystal layer. The substrate provided with the color filter preferably has a haze value of 10% or less. Such a liquid crystal display apparatus allows excellent viewing angle compensation, exhibits exceptional contrast in an oblique direction, and can be reduced in thickness.

Abstract: A liquid crystal panel of the present invention comprise a liquid crystal cell, a first polarizer arranged on one of both sides of the liquid crystal cell, and a second polarizer arranged on the other side of the liquid crystal cell, wherein at least one of the first and the second polarizers is dyed with a dichroic material, and the dichroic ratio thereof is from 40 to 100. At least one of the polarizers preferably has a polarization degree of 99% or more and a single transmittance of 35% to 45%. Further, at least one of the polarizers preferably exhibits the following birefringence: ?nxy is from 0.015 to 0.030. The liquid crystal panel of the present invention has the above polarizers, therefore the liquid crystal panel attains high contrast ratio in oblique directions and excellent display characteristics.

Abstract: A method for producing an optical film including a birefringence layer having a refractive index distribution that satisfies nx>nz>ny, by which productivity of an optical film becomes high because there are a few steps, and a contamination is reduced, is provided. The method for producing an optical film including a birefringence layer includes forming an applied film by applying a birefringence layer forming material containing a non-liquid crystalline material with a birefringence (?nxz) in the thickness direction thereof of 0.0007 or more directly on a shrinkable film, and forming a birefringence layer having a refractive index distribution that satisfies nx>nz>ny by shrinking the applied film through shrinking the shrinkable film.

Abstract: The present invention provides a laminate optical body, which is excellent in production efficiency, shows an extremely small axis shift and can realize a liquid crystal display apparatus showing small display unevenness. The laminate optical body of the present invention includes an elongated polarizing film having an absorption axis in a short direction thereof, and including a base material layer and a hydrophilic polymer layer to which a dichromatic substance adsorbs; and an elongated retardation film having a slow axis in a lengthwise direction thereof. The polarizing film is a laminate including the base material layer and the hydrophilic polymer layer to which a dichromatic substance adsorbs. The laminate optical body is elongated. Preferably, the hydrophilic polymer layer has a thickness of 1 ?m to 10 ?m.

Abstract: An optical compensation film according to an embodiment of the present invention includes: non-liquid crystal polymers arranged in a tilt alignment, wherein the optical compensation film satisfies the following expressions (1) and (2): 3 [nm]?(nx?ny)×d;??(1) and 5°<?,??(2) where, when an X-axis and a Y-axis, which are plane direction axes of a three-dimensional coordinate system, are perpendicular to each other and an axis vertical to the X-axis and the Y-axis in a thickness direction is defined as a Z-axis, nx and ny indicate a maximum refractive index and a minimum refractive index in an XY-plane of the optical compensation film, respectively, d indicates a film thickness [nm], and ? indicates an angle formed between a direction for providing the minimum refractive index ny and a direction for providing a maximum refractive index nb in a YZ-plane of the optical compensation film.

Abstract: The liquid crystal panel of the invention can restrain coloration following a change in the viewing angle when black is displayed, and can be produced into a relatively thin form. This panel has a liquid crystal cell 20 having a color filter having individual blue, green and red regions, a first polarizer 10 formed on one side of the cell 20, a second polarizer 40 formed on the other side of the cell 20, and a compensation layer 30 arranged between the first and second polarizers 10 and 40. The compensation layer 30 has an optical characteristic that the layer gives a larger retardation for a longer wavelength, and the cell 20 has a liquid crystal layer in a vertical alignment mode, and the thickness direction retardation values Rth(B), Rth(G) and Rth(R) of the liquid crystal cell to light transmitted through the individual color regions in the liquid crystal cell 20 satisfy: |Rth(B)|<|Rth(G)|<|Rth(R)|.

Abstract: There are provided an easily producible retardation plate for forming a stereoscopic image and a stereoscopic image display device and a stereoscopic image display system produced therewith. A retardation plate for forming a stereoscopic image has a plurality of first retardation regions and a plurality of second retardation regions in the same plane. The first retardation regions have an in-plane retardation of (¼+m)? at a wavelength ?, and the second retardation regions have an in-plane retardation of (¾+n)? at a wavelength ?, wherein m and n are each 0 or a natural number, preferably m=n=0. The first and second retardation regions have slow axis directions parallel to each other.

Abstract: Provided is a liquid crystal display device appreciating room making it possible to prevent glare or external-image-projection on the basis of external light so that persons can watch the screen of a liquid crystal display device satisfactorily. The appreciating room comprises a room, a liquid crystal display device arranged inside the room and having a liquid crystal panel 2, and a light source which lightens the inside of the room, wherein a ¼ wavelength plate 6 is arranged on the front surface side of a viewing-side polarizer 3 of the liquid crystal panel 2, the ¼ wavelength plate 6 is arranged to set the angle ? of the slow axis direction X thereof to 45±5° or 135±5° from the absorptive axis direction A of the viewing-side polarizer toward the counterclockwise direction when the ¼ wavelength plate is seen from the viewing-side, and light inside the room is any one of left-handed circularly polarized light and right-handed circularly polarized light.

Abstract: A video image evaluation equipment of the present invention is capable of converting circularly-polarized light emitted from a circularly polarizing light source into linearly-polarized light so as to transmit an absorption-type linear polarizer by a wavelength plate to be incident on a liquid crystal panel. This makes it possible to enter and reflect light emitted from the circularly polarizing light source on the liquid crystal panel without loss, which leads to display brighter video images than conventional ones.

Abstract: A method of manufacturing a birefringent film includes stretching a polymer film in a widthwise direction while at the same time shrinking the same in a lengthwise direction so as to satisfy the relational expression: (1/STD)1/2?SMD<1, in which the length in the widthwise direction and the length in the lengthwise direction, of the polymer film before being stretched are respectively designated as 1, and STD represents a change ratio of the length in the widthwise direction of the polymer film due to stretching and SMD represents a change ratio of the length in the lengthwise direction of the polymer film due to shrinking, and make the stretched polymer film have an Nz coefficient of 0.9-1.1.

Abstract: A method for producing an optical film including a birefringent layer having a refractive index distribution satisfying nx>nz>ny that can be produced by a small number of steps, contains less foreign matter trapped therein, and has high productivity. An optical film including a birefringent layer, wherein the method includes steps of: forming a coating film by directly applying a material for forming a birefringent layer on the shrinkable film; shrinking the coating film in a first direction by shrinking the shrinkable film; and stretching a laminate of the shrinkable film and the coating film in a second direction orthogonal to the first direction, wherein the material for forming a birefringent layer contains at least one resin selected from the group consisting of norbornene resins, polycarbonate resins, cellulose resins, polyamides, and polyurethanes, and wherein the birefringent layer has a refractive index distribution satisfying nx>nz>ny.

Abstract: A method of manufacturing a polarizer is provided that makes it possible to virtually simultaneously perform a contact of a hydrophilic polymer film with liquid and stretch of the hydrophilic polymer film in a width direction by a tenter method, or the like, using a small and simple manufacturing equipment. A method of manufacturing a polarizer includes a width direction stretching process for stretching a hydrophilic polymer film 1 in the width direction, which is continuously supplied, by gripping both ends in a width direction thereof with grip means 2 and moving the grip means 2 in a longitudinal direction of the film 1 as well as by bringing the film 1 into contact with liquid and also moving the grip means 2, which grips at least one of both ends in the width direction of the film 1, outwardly in the width direction of the film 1; and a dyeing process for dyeing the film 1 by a dichroic material.

Abstract: A liquid crystal panel of this invention has a first polarizer and a second polarizer disposed on both sides of a liquid crystal cell, and a first optical compensation layer disposed between the liquid crystal cell and the first polarizer, a second optical compensation layer disposed between the liquid crystal cell and the second polarizer, and a third optical compensation layer disposed between the first optical compensation layer and the second optical compensation layer, and wavelength dispersion of the liquid crystal cell satisfies Re40(450)>Re40(550)>Re40(650), wavelength dispersion of the first optical compensation layer and wavelength dispersion of the second optical compensation layer satisfy 0.7<Re40(450)/Re40(550)<1.05, and wavelength dispersion of the third optical compensation layer satisfies Re40(450)>Re40(550)>Re40(650).

Abstract: A birefringent film with excellent uniformity in in-plane retardation, retardation in the thickness direction, and alignment axis is provided. The birefringent film is produced in such a manner that, in the step of stretching a polymer film, the polymer film is stretched in a width direction while being shrunk in a longitudinal direction, and assuming that lengths in the width direction and the longitudinal direction of the polymer film before being stretched are 1, a change ratio (STD) of the length in the width direction of the polymer film resulting from the stretching and a change ratio (SMD) of the length in the longitudinal direction of the polymer film resulting from the shrinking satisfy the following formula (1).

Abstract: The invention provides a polarizing film comprising: a long polymer film; and a dichroic substance, wherein the polarizing film has an absorption axis in the TD direction of the polarizing film.

Abstract: A video viewing facility is provided. A circularly polarized light source is provided outside a self-luminous display. The self-luminous display includes a first wave plate having a function of converting circularly polarized light into linearly polarized light; a polarizing film; a second wave plate having a function of converting circularly polarized light into linearly polarized light; a circularly polarized light separating film; and a self-luminous panel, in this order from a visible side of the self-luminous display.