Discharge lamp drive device, light source device, projector, and discharge lamp drive method

A discharge lamp drive device comprising:

• a discharge lamp driver adapted to supply a drive current to a discharge lamp having a first electrode and a second electrode;
• a control section adapted to control the discharge lamp driver;
• and
• a storage section adapted to store at least three drive patterns of the drive current, wherein
• each of the at least three drive patterns has a plurality of drive parameters,
• any two of the at least three drive patterns are different from each other in a value of at least one of the plurality of drive parameters, and
• after the control section executes the at least three drive patterns, the control section evaluates the at least three drive patterns based on a change in inter-electrode voltage of the discharge lamp and selects one drive pattern of the at least three drive patterns based on machine learning, and executes the selected drive pattern.