Patent ID: 6292593
Filing Date: 2001-09-18
Classification: G06T,H04N

Abstract:
An image synthesizing apparatus comprising:image-to-be-combined producing means for producing a plurality of signals of images-to-be-combined, the signals representing the images-to-be-combined including different portions of a subject, the means producing signals so that an image-to-be-combined including a portion of the subject and an adjacent image-to-be-combined including a portion adjacent to said portion of the subject have an overlapped region where a same portion of the subject is imaged in the images-to-be-combined;first matching means for making a check on matching of the images of the subject in the overlapped region for each set of adjacent images-to-be-combined among the image-to-be-combined signals produced by the image-to-be-combined producing means, and detecting a relative positional deviation between the overlapped regions on the basis of a result of the check on matching;second matching means for setting a plurality of reference regions of a predetermined size in the overlapped region of one of the images-to-be-combined whose relative positional deviation is detected by the first matching means, for setting a search region larger than the reference region for each of the reference regions in the overlapped region of the other of the images-to-be-combined on the basis of the relative positional deviation, for making a check on matching of the images of the subject between the reference region and the search region corresponding to the reference region, and for detecting a relative positional deviation between the images of the subject on the basis of a result of the check on matching; andimage combining means for combining all the image-to-be-combined signals to superimpose the reference region and the search region corresponding to the reference region for each set of adjacent images-to-be-combined while partially deforming the respective images-to-be-combined to cancel the relative positional deviation detected by the second matching means, and producing combined image signals expressing a single combined image with respect to the subject.