fig4 and 5 illustrate two exemplary methods of operation of a dmd having a seven - bit memory cell associated with each mirror cell . specifically , fig4 illustrates operation in accordance with the prior art method described in the background of the invention , while fig5 illustrates operation in accordance with a first embodiment of the invention . in each of these examples , a binary display code 1001101 is read from the memory cell during a read portion of the respective frame period and then a new seven - bit display code is written into the memory cell during a write portion of the same frame period . in a typical application , such as displaying television images at 60 hz ., each frame period t would have a duration of approximately 16 . 7 ms for presenting a monochromatic image or approximately 5 . 6 ms for presenting each of three successive red - green - blue ( rgb ) images to produce a composite polychromatic image . in the illustrated examples of fig4 and 5 , the read and write portions of the frame period for a monochromatic image occupy approximately 12 . 7 and 4 . 0 ms , respectively . for a composite polychromatic image , each of the rgb images would be produced in a respective frame period having read and write portions of 4 . 2 and 1 . 3 ms , respectively . of course , the read and write portions could occupy different portions of the frame period , depending on the particular display apparatus . alternatively , if two multi - bit memory cells are provided for each mirror cell , the read and write cycles could occur simultaneously , with the read cycle occupying the entire frame period . for purposes of these examples , each higher order bit of the display code has a value corresponding to twice that of the last , with the least significant bit b 0 having a weight corresponding to a duration of either 0 . 1 ms for a monochromatic frame period or 0 . 0333 ms for a polychromatic frame period . in either case , the exemplary 1001101 display code would activate the associated mirror into its on state for approximately 61 % of the read portion of the frame period . this is also 61 % of the maximum brightness obtainable , which occurs when the mirror is in its on state for 100 % of the read portion . as is readily apparent from fig4 even when utilizing a seven bit display code , the prior art method suffers from the same disadvantage as in the previously described example utilizing a three bit code . that is , by sequentially activating the mirror for the full durations represented by the respective bits , i . e . bits b 6 b 5 b 4 b 3 b 2 b 1 b 0 the artifact is likely to appear . for example , if the eye views the pixel corresponding to the mirror during only activation of the mirror into the one state represented by the most significant bit b 6 , the viewer will incorrectly interpret or see the pixel at 100 % brightness . alternatively , if the eye views the pixel during activation of the mirror into the zero state represented by the next - most - significant bits b 5 and b 4 , the viewer will incorrectly see the pixel as dark ( zero brightness ). fig5 illustrates how this artifact is avoided by activating the mirror in accordance with a first embodiment of the invention . that is , activation of the mirror into the state represented by most significant bit b 6 is interrupted while the mirror is activated into the states represented by the bits b 5 and b 4 . for the monochromatic example , the mirror is sequentially activated into the states represented by the bits b 6 b 3 b 4 for respective periods of 0 . 4 ms , 0 . 2 ms and 0 . 1 ms , and this sequence is repeated until it occurs sixteen times to cumulatively achieve the full activation duration of 11 . 2 ms for these three bits . in other words , each of these three bit durations is separated into sixteen periods which are uniformly distributed throughout the cumulative 11 . 2 ms duration for the three bits . by thus distributing the mirror activation for the three most significant bits over 87 . 5 % of the entire mirror activation duration , the viewer is likely to see the pixel at an approximately correct brightness level . that is , if the eye views the pixel for any 0 . 7 ms or longer portion of the 11 . 2 ms activation duration for the most significant bits b 6 b 5 b 4 , the viewer will see an approximately correct brightness . for the particular example of the 1001101 display code , the brightness seen after viewing the pixel for any 0 . 7 ms portion of the 11 . 2 ms duration will be 60 % rather than the correct brightness of 61 %. however , if the eye views the pixel during the 1 . 5 ms interval when the mirror is activated into the states represented by bits b 3 b 2 b 1 b 0 , the viewer will see a brightness which depends on the values of these four least significant bits . such a value is less likely than that of the most significant bits to approximate the correct brightness represented by the full seven - bit code . fig6 illustrates an embodiment of the invention which produces an accurate brightness interpretation regardless of when the eye views the pixel . this is achieved by separating each of the six most - significant - bit durations into multiple mirror - activation periods and by distributing these periods and the mirror - activation duration for the least significant bit b 0 uniformly throughout the read portion of the frame period . in the example of fig6 the same binary - weighted display code and read and write durations are used to facilitate comparison with fig4 and 5 . as in the fig5 embodiment , the mirror is sequentially activated into the states represented by the bits b 6 b 5 b 4 and this sequence is repeated until it occurs sixteen times . however , the sixteen b 6 b 5 b 4 sequences are now distributed throughout the entire mirror activation duration , corresponding to the read portion of the frame period . for the monochromatic example , the mirror is sequentially activated into the states represented by the bits b 6 b 5 b 4 for the respective periods of 0 . 4 ms , 0 . 2 ms and 0 . 1 ms , and the sixteen occurrences of this sequence again utilize 11 . 2 ms of the complete 12 . 7 ms mirror activation duration . to simplify fig6 only the first occurrence of this b 6 b 5 b 4 sequence is labelled . with respect to the remaining bits , the mirror activation durations for more - significant bits b 3 , b 2 , and b 1 are each separated into multiple mirror - activation periods , and these periods and the mirror - activation duration for the least significant bit b 0 are inserted between the b 6 b 5 b 4 sequences . for the monochromatic example , each of these periods is 0 . 1 ms long , which is equal to the b 0 duration . the pattern in which these periods are distributed between the b 6 b 5 b 4 sequences can be determined from fig6 but is more readily apparent from the following table : from this table it is apparent that the eight mirror - activation periods for bit b 3 are uniformly inserted between the sixteen b 6 b 5 b 4 sequences , the four mirror - activation periods for bit b 2 are uniformly inserted between the b 3 periods , the two mirror - activation periods for bit b 1 are uniformly inserted between the b 2 periods , and the single mirror - activation period for bit b 0 is inserted midway between the two b 1 periods . note that , although the described embodiments utilize uniform distribution patterns , the invention is not limited to such patterns . rather , the distribution patterns may be adapted to the type of imagery with which the invention is used and may be , for example , random or some other type of nonuniform distribution . alternatively , the pattern could be optimized to reduce the number of times which the mirrors must be switched from one state to the other during each frame period , thereby prolonging mirror life .