TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates to a display unit having flexibility such as a so-called electronic paper, and an electronic apparatus including such a display unit.

BACKGROUND ART

In recent years, various developments of ultraslim display units called electronic papers (e-papers) have been carried out by various manufacturers (for example, refer to PTLs 1 and 2). For example, in PTL 1, a so-called electronic book (e-book) using such a display unit as a book is proposed.

CITATION LIST

Patent Literature

PTL 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2010-218102

PTL 2: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2010-157060

SUMMARY OF INVENTION

Since the above-described display unit is thin and highly flexible, the display unit is allowed to be physically bent or twisted. Therefore, various user interfaces such as a user interface in which a sensor configured to detect a bend or the like by a user is mounted to switch display contents by such a user operation are achievable. Therefore, in such a display unit having flexibility, an improvement in convenience to users is generally desired.

Thus, it is desirable to provide a display unit and an electronic apparatus that are capable of improving convenience to users.

A display unit of an embodiment of the present disclosure includes: a display section having flexibility; and a bending control section configured to limit a movable shaft in bending the display section to one direction in a display surface and allowed to maintain the display section in an arbitrary bending state.

An electronic apparatus of an embodiment of the present disclosure includes the above-described display unit of the embodiment of the present disclosure.

In the display unit and the electronic apparatus of the embodiments of the present disclosure, the movable shaft in bending the display section having flexibility is limited to one direction in the display surface. Therefore, the display section is less prone to breakage, and a display image on the display section is easily viewed. Moreover, the bending control section is allowed to maintain the display section in the arbitrary bending state; therefore, the display unit and the electronic apparatus are allowed to be used at an arbitrary bending degree including a flat state when in use (when an display image is viewed) and when not in use (for example, when the electronic book is stored or carried in a folded state).

According to the display unit and the electronic apparatus of the embodiments of the present disclosure, the bending control section configured to limit the movable shaft in bending the display section to one direction in the display surface and allowed to maintain the display section in the arbitrary bending state is provided; therefore, while the display section is less prone to breakage, an display image is allowed to be easily viewed, and use at an arbitrary bending degree is achievable. Therefore, in the display unit having flexibility, convenience to users is allowed to be improved.

