Patent ID: 6404913
Filing Date: 2002-06-11
Classification: G06T

Abstract:
An image synthesizing apparatus for synthesizing the projected image of a second object by assuming that said second object is present at a predetermined position of each of a plurality of photographic images on which a first object photographed by an image pickup device is photographed, the apparatus comprising:image-pickup-device-position computing means for computing the most-probable position of said image pickup device when photographing each of said photographic images; characteristic point position computing means for computing the most-probable position of a characteristic point of said first object; virtual projected position computing means for computing a virtual projected position on which the most-probable position of said characteristic point is projected when performing photography by using said image pickup device present at said most-probable position; distortion value computing means for computing a distortion value in accordance with the difference between said virtual projected position and the position of the projected image of said characteristic point actually photographed on each of said photographic images; correcting means for correcting a position to which the projected image of said second object is set in accordance with the distortion value computed by said distortion value computing means; projected image computing means for computing the projected image of said second object when photographing said second object from said image pickup device at the most-probable position by assuming that said second object is present at the position corrected by said correcting means; and synthesizing means for synthesizing the projected image of said second object computed by said projected image computing means with each of said photographic images.