Patent ID: 8860640

Claim:
A zonal illumination system for use in a projector, comprising: a source of illumination; a first spatial light modulator for dividing light from said source of illumination into a plurality of zones having respective light intensities based on zonal lighting intensity of an image to be projected; and a second spatial light modulator for modulating light from said first spatial light modulator to generate said image to be projected, wherein said first spatial light modulator comprises a first integrator for internally reflecting light from said source of illumination, and a first imaging device for receiving light from said first integrator and in response generating a spatially variable pattern of light wherein each zone has a brightness intensity corresponding to the brightness of an associated portion of the image to be projected, wherein said second spatial light modulator comprises a second integrator for internally reflecting said spatially variable pattern of light from said first spatial light modulator, and a second imaging device for receiving and modulating said spatially variable pattern of light from said second integrator to generate said image to be projected, wherein said first imaging device generates a respective spatial dithering pattern for each said zone, and wherein said second integrator comprises an array of integrating rods for receiving said spatially variable pattern of light such that each integrating rod in said array receives the respective spatial dithering pattern from a corresponding one of said zones.