Patent ID: 7934836

Claim:
A projector comprising: a light source that emits light including visible light and infrared light; a light separating unit that separates the light from the light source into lights in plural different wavelength regions; at least one light modulation element for visible light that modulates visible light separated by the light separating unit; at least one light modulation element for infrared light that modulates one kind of infrared light or at least two kinds of infrared light in wavelength regions different from each other separated by the light separating units; a light combining unit that combines the modulated light modulated by the light modulation element for visible light and the modulated light modulated by the light modulation element for infrared light into one to form combined light; and a projecting unit that projects and displays the combined light combined by the light combining unit on a projection surface, wherein the projector superimposes and displays a visible light image formed by the light modulation element for visible light and an infrared image formed by the light modulation element for infrared light on the identical projection surface, and a physical distance from one of the at least one light modulation element for visible light to the projecting unit and a physical distance from one of the at least one light modulation element for infrared light to the projecting unit are set different from each other such that the physical distance from the one of the at least one light modulation element for infrared light to the projecting unit is greater than the physical distance from the one of the at least one light modulation element for visible light to the projecting unit.