Color wheel (optics)

A common application of the color wheel is to provide a color filter for a single-chip projector, which would otherwise only be able to display a greyscale image. The color wheel is placed in front of the light source (usually a metal-halide lamp) and spins rapidly, splitting the light into red, green, and blue primary colors. The chip then displays each primary color one at a time, quickly enough that the human eye will see them as a full-color image. This method is not perfect; in high-contrast scenes, such as a bright streetlight against a night sky, or the credits at the end of a film, the individual color frames may be visible; therefore, high-end and professional projectors split the light with a prism and use three separate chips, one for each primary color.

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