Patent ID: 8021001

Claim:
A projector including a light source of a plurality of different-colored light emitting elements and a display element for receiving an image signal, the projector projecting a color image in a field sequential color system, the projector comprising: a storage unit which stores data on a plurality of different light emission patterns each occurring in a period based on a plurality of different-colored lights emitted by the plurality of different-colored light emitting elements, wherein each light emission pattern corresponds to a respective one of a plurality of different projection conditions of the color image; an acquiring unit which acquires a present projection condition of the color image; a reader which reads from the storage unit data on a light emission pattern corresponding to the present projection condition of the color image acquired by the acquiring unit; and a controller which controls a light emission operation of the plurality of different-colored light emitting elements in the period in accordance with the read data on a light emission pattern; wherein the present projection condition of the image acquired by the acquiring unit comprises a luminous intensity of a projection environment of the color image; wherein the plurality of different-colored light emitting elements respectively emit red, green and blue light; wherein the plurality of light emission patterns whose data are stored in the storage unit cause the plurality of different-colored light emitting elements to respectively emit one of red, green and blue lights sequentially in successive durations at a full brightness and, in each respective successive duration, cause the other light emitting elements which are not emitting their respective corresponding colored light at the full brightness in that particular duration to respectively emit their corresponding colored light simultaneously for that particular duration at a predetermined brightness lower than the full brightness; wherein during a given one of the durations, an image signal corresponding to the one of the red, green and blue lights which is emitted at the full brightness is supplied to the display element; and wherein the brightness that is lower than the full brightness at which the other light emitting elements are caused to respectively emit their corresponding colored light simultaneously for that duration is different for each of the plurality of light emission patterns.