Patent ID: 8922630

Claim:
A projector configured to switch between a right-eye video image and a left-eye video image at predetermined switching timings to output the right-eye video image and the left-eye video image alternately, the projector comprising: a discharge lamp; a discharge lamp driver that supplies the discharge lamp with a drive current for driving the discharge lamp; and a controller that controls the discharge lamp driver, wherein a period sandwiched between temporally adjacent ones of the switching timings starts with a first period and ends with a second period, the first period starts with a third period and ends with a fourth period, the controller controls the discharge lamp driver in such a way that an absolute magnitude of the drive current in the first period is smaller than the absolute magnitude of the drive current in the second period, in the second period, the controller carries out a second-period AC control process in which the discharge lamp driver is controlled to supply an AC current as the drive current to the discharge lamp, and in the first period, the controller carries out a first-period control process in which the discharge lamp driver is so controlled that (1) in the third period, the absolute magnitude of the drive current becomes a minimum in the first period, (2) in the fourth period, the absolute magnitude of the drive current becomes an intermediate value between the minimum and a maximum absolute magnitude of the drive current in the second period, and (3) the third period and the fourth period each have a period where the drive current becomes constant direct current.