Patent ID: 8246177

Claim:
A lighting unit comprising: a light source configured to emit light including at least red component light, green component light, and blue component light; a red light imager configured to modulate the red component light; a green light imager configured to modulate the green component light; a blue light imager configured to modulate the blue component light; a color combining unit configured to combine light emitted from the red light imager, the green light imager, and the blue light imager; and a light modulating optical device configured to have a structure in which a device state reversibly changes depending on an application voltage to be applied to the light modulating optical device, wherein incident light having a first waveband and incident light having a second waveband enters the light modulating optical device; the light modulating optical device changes a transmittance or a reflectance of the light having the second waveband depending on the device state, without changing the transmittance or the reflectance of the light having the first waveband; and light having emitted from the light modulating optical device enters a particular imager which is any one of the red light imager, the green light imager, and the blue light imager, which corresponds to the incident light.