ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 17 -- United States Patent no. 12,554,167, issued on Feb. 17, was assigned to Japan Display Inc. (Tokyo).
"Lighting device" was invented by Kojiro Ikeda (Tokyo), Takeo Koito (Tokyo) and Tae Kurokawa (Tokyo).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A lighting device includes a light source having a first optical element and a second optical element emitting directional light, and one liquid crystal optical element transmitting or diffusing the light emitted from the light source. The first and the second optical elements include a first and a second light exit surfaces, and the first and the second light exit surfaces are arranged to direct in different directions. The liquid crysta...