Patent ID: 7914150

Claim:
A method of driving a spatial light modulator that modulates incident light in accordance with a signal corresponding to an image including a signal corresponding to an image of first colored light and a signal corresponding to an image of second colored light, comprising: generating no fewer than n and no more than 2 n (“n” denotes a positive integer) of sub-frame pulse signals for the first colored light to express depth of the image of the first colored light using n bits, the sub-frame pulse signals for the first colored light respectively having weights corresponding to the first through nth bits; generating no fewer than m and no more than 2 m (“m” denotes a positive integer and is not less than n) of sub-frame pulse signals for the second colored light to express depth of the image of the second colored light using m bits, the sub-frame pulse signals for the second colored light respectively having weights corresponding to the first through m bits; arranging the sub-frame pulse signals for the first colored light and the sub-frame pulse signals for the second colored light so that at least three of the sub-frame pulse signals for the first colored light adjoin either one of the sub-frame pulse signals for the second colored light during at least one frame of the image; defining a sub-frame pulse signal combination as a combination of the no fewer than n and no more than 2 n sub-frame pulse signals for the first colored light and the no fewer than m and no more than 2 m sub-frame pulse signals for the second colored light arranged so that more than one sub-frame pulse signal combination is provided in one frame of the image in repeating fashion; and driving a plurality of movable mirror elements in accordance with the sub-frame pulse signals for the first colored light and the sub-frame pulse signals for the second colored light arranged when arranging the sub-frame pulse signals, the movable mirror elements being alternatively moved at least to a first reflecting position and a second reflecting position.