Patent ID: 7502052

Claim:
An image deformation estimating method comprising: a first step of providing plural local areas in plural frame images, which form a moving image, and obtaining plural pieces of first information indicating movements among the plural frame images in the plural local areas, respectively; a second step of obtaining plural pieces of second information, which express image deformation of each of the plural local areas, using the plural pieces of first information; a third step of preparing plural selected rules, selecting the plural pieces of second information for each of the selected rules, and obtaining second representative information which represents the selected plural pieces of second information, for each of the selected rules; and a fourth step of obtaining third information expressing deformation of an entire image by use of the plural pieces of second representative information which are obtained for the plural selected rules, wherein the third step comprises obtaining a frequency distribution of the second information corresponding to a magnitude of the second information for each of the selected rules to obtain the third information on the basis of the frequency distribution.