Abstract There is disclosed a liquid crystal digital reticle comprising a liquid crystal cell formed by two transparent plates of a material such as glass which are separated by a spacer around their edges and confine a liquid crystal material between them. The inside surface of each plate is provided with a plurality of transparent conductors laid down in an incremental pattern such as plurality of closely spaced parallel lines, the conductors on one plate extending horizontally and the conductors on the other plate extending vertically. The cell is positioned at a focal plane of the objective lens of a telescope or other optical sighting device. With no voltage applied, the glass plates and the liquid crystal material between them are transparent. When a voltage is applied between a switch selectable one of the vertical conductors and a switch selectable one of the horizontal conductors, not only the crystal material in the volume defined by the projective intersection points of the two conductors, but also portions of the material adjacent to such intersections on the entire length of each of the two selected conductors is activated to the dynamic scattering mode. The light scattering effect forms apparent lines in a cross-hair pattern against either light or dark backgrounds. The intersection point of these lines can be moved at will by appropriate matrix addressing techniques to select one horizontal and one vertical conductor. The mechanism by which energization of only two non-aligned conductors causes scattering along the length of both conductors is not fully understood but is believed to be due to a crosscoupling or ''''cross-talk'''' phenomenon.
The method of operating a liquid crystal cell comprising the steps of: a. positioning a first set of incrementally spaced transparent conductors on one interior face of said cell in spaced orthogonal relationship to a second set of incrementally spaced conductors on the opposite parallel interior other face of said cell; b. completing an electrical energizing circuit between only a preselected one of said first set of conductors and a preselected one of said second set of conductors; and c. maintaining the voltage difference between said preselected conductors at a magnitude greater than the half voltage required to cause turbulence of the liquid crystal material only in the projective intersection volume of said energized conductors to thereby cause turbulence at a plurality of other points along the length of each of said energized conductors by cross coupling.
Claim 2
Independent Claim
137 words
The method of operating a liquid crystal cell comprising the steps of: a. positioning a first set of incrementally spaced transparent conductors on one interior face of said cell in spaced orthogonal relationship to a second set of incrementally spaced conductors on the opposite parallel interior other face of said cell; b. completing an electrical energizing circuit between only a preselected one of said first set of conductors and a preselected one of said second set of conductors; and c. maintaining the voltage difference between said preselected conductors at a magnitude greater than the half voltage required to cause turbulence of the liquid crystal material only in the projective intersection volume of said energized conductors to thereby cause turbulence at a plurality of other points along the length of each of said energized conductors by cross coupling.