Sharp announced on Thursday July 14 that it has developed two new kinds of LCD panels. One panel is able to show different content depending on whether people view their screen from the left or the right. A so-called parallax barrier is superimposed on the LCD in order to separate the source light to the left and to the right of the screen. The company said that in the future these panels could be used in mobile phones, PCs and car navigation systems.

 

The other newly developed LCD panel enables users to switch from a wide to a narrow viewing angle in order to see private information without other people being able to look at the information as well. The company uses a material which prevents light from going left or right. These panels could be used in all kinds of applications on which users require privacy, such as PCs and ATMs.

 

Sharp will start production on these two panels in July 2005, and it expects sales to amount to ten billion Yen in the fiscal year 2005, which ends in March 2006.