Patent ID: 8780197

Claim:
An apparatus for detecting a face, comprising: a first distance image acquiring unit to acquire a first distance image for a background based on at least two obtained images; a second distance image acquiring unit to acquire a second distance image for an object and the background based on at least two other obtained images; a distance difference image acquiring unit to acquire a distance difference image between the first distance image and the second distance image; an object mask creator to create an object mask based on the acquired distance difference image; an object area detector to detect an object area in one of the at least two other obtained images, using the created object mask; and a facial area detector to detect a face in the detected object area by scanning the detected object area with a search window for face detection whose size is determined based on a distance to the object, wherein the first distance image is acquired when there is only a background without an object, and the second distance image is acquired when an object appears over the same background, and wherein the distance difference image includes the object without the background.