Heretofore, in a lighting apparatus that irradiates irradiation light having an arbitrary shape, a filter called a gobo or a mask is installed to a projection instrument, and a projected portion onto which the irradiation light is emitted from the projection instrument is shaded. In such a way, the irradiation light that has passed through the filter turns to a state of being clipped into a specific shape. Specifically, in a conventional lighting system, a filter (such as the gobo) clipped into a base shape composed of a circle, a triangle, a square or the like is attached to the projection instrument, and a shape is given to an outline of the irradiation light.
Moreover, in the conventional lighting system, in the case where the irradiation light is desired to be irradiated only onto an object as an irradiation target, after a projection position of the irradiation light emitted from the projection instrument is aligned to a position of the object as the irradiation target, an operation is performed, which is to match a rough outline of the irradiation light with a shape of the object as the irradiation target by a diaphragm function and zoom function of the projection instrument.
Furthermore, heretofore, there has been a lighting system called a moving projector that performs space direction by using a projector, which is the projection instrument, in place of a lighting appliance (a light). The space direction is as described in Non-Patent Literatures 1 and 2 (http://www.egghouse.com/gobo/about.htm, and http://www ushiolighting.co.jp/product/productimage/pdf/dl2.p df). This moving projector emits video light as the irradiation light. Therefore, the moving projector is capable of freely setting the shape and color of the irradiation light, and changing the irradiation light as a moving picture.
However, even in this lighting system, in the case of giving the shape to the irradiation light, in a similar way to the conventional lighting system, there is adopted a technique for roughly matching the outline of the irradiation light with the shape of the object as the irradiation target by using mask processing for superimposing the base shape on a video.
Still further, heretofore, a technology described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-338181 has been known as a stereoscopic display device capable of effectively expressing a surface texture of an object on a three-dimensional shape model.
However, in the above-mentioned conventional lighting system, a shape filter, a diaphragm and a zoom, which are prepared in advance, are used, and accordingly, the shape of the irradiation light can only be roughly matched with the object as the irradiation target. Moreover, in the mask processing for superimposing the base shape on the video, the base shape is formed in conformity with the shape of the object as the irradiation target, whereby highly accurate shape matching is possible. However, the base shape is formed into a two-dimensional shape. Therefore, in the case of viewing the object as the irradiation target having the arbitrary shape in different directions, it is necessary to use different base shapes, and it is difficult to divert the mask processing to a technology for simultaneously projecting plural pieces of the irradiation light toward the object as the irradiation target by a plurality of the projection instruments installed at different positions.
In this connection, the present invention has been proposed in consideration of the above-mentioned actual circumstances. It is an object of the present invention to provide a lighting apparatus capable of coating the object as the irradiation target having the arbitrary shape with the irradiation light with high accuracy.