Patent ID: 8379984

Claim:
A method of controlling a digital image processing apparatus for detecting a face from continuously input images, the method comprising: (a) if a face is detected, storing image information of a body area; (b) if a face is not detected, detecting a body having image information stored in (a); and (c) if a current body is detected after a previous body was detected in (b), determining a movement state of the face by comparing a luminance characteristic of contours of the previously detected body and a luminance characteristic of contours of the currently detected body by: (c11) obtaining a contour feature value by adding luminance difference values between adjacent pixels with respect to all contours of the previously detected body; (c12) obtaining a contour feature value by adding luminance difference values between adjacent pixels with respect to all contours of the currently detected body; (c13) calculating a rate of contour feature change, which is a rate of change of the contour feature value of the currently detected body with respect to the contour feature value of the previously detected body; and (c14) determining the movement state of the face according to the rate of contour feature change.