Patent ID: 8333476

Claim:
An image projection apparatus that causes a first colored light to enter a first reflective liquid crystal display element and causes second and third colored lights to enter a second reflective liquid crystal display element alternately, and projects a color image, said image projection apparatus comprising: the first reflective liquid crystal display element; the second reflective liquid crystal display element; a first light source configured to emit the first colored light; a second light source configured to emit the second colored light; a third light source configured to emit the third colored light; a drive unit configured to control lighting of the first, second and the third light sources; a polarization conversion element configured to control a polarization direction of a colored light emitted from at least one of the first, second and third light sources that are lighted by the drive unit; a polarization beam splitter configured to guide the colored light from the polarization conversion element to the first and second reflective liquid crystal display elements in accordance with the polarization direction; and a projection optical system configured to project light from the first and second reflective liquid crystal display elements onto a plane to be projected, wherein the first, second and third colored lights have different wavelengths from each other, wherein the first colored light and the second or third colored light are emitted from the polarization conversion element as lights whose polarization directions are different from each other, wherein the drive unit controls the lighting of the second and third light sources so that the second colored light and the third colored light alternately enters the second reflective liquid crystal display element, and wherein the drive unit controls the lighting of the first light source so that the first colored light enters the first reflective liquid crystal display element both when the drive unit causes the second light source to be lighted and when the drive unit causes the third light source to be lighted.