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Abstract

An image processing apparatus comprises a liquid modulator having a photoconductive material including an image-writing plane, a liquid crystal layer laminated on the photoconductive material, a pair of electrodes sandwiching the photoconductive material and the liquid crystal layer, and a spacer inserted between the photoconductive material and one of the electrodes. Also provided are an analog writing system for analogously writing an original image in the light modulator; a digital reading system for digitally reading the image written in the light modulator; a processing section for image-processing the read image data; a digital writing system for digitally writing processed image data in the light modulator; and, an analog reading system for analogously reading an image written in the light modulator. The liquid crystal layer is either a phase-transition type liquid crystal, a p-type smectic A liquid crystal providing a storage function, or a ferroelectric liquid crystal providing a storage function. The phase-transition type liquid crystal is selected from a group consisting of (1) a p-type cholesteric liquid crystal and (2) a mixture of p-type cholesteric liquid crystal and p-type nematic liquid crystal. The ferroelectric liquid crystal is selected from a group consisting of (1) a chiral smectic C liquid crystal, (2) a mixture of chiral smectic C liquid crystal and non-chiral smectic C liquid crystal, and (3) a mixture of chiral smectic C liquid crystal and a photoactive material.

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