Patent ID: 8238606

Claim:
An image recognition apparatus for recognizing an object by using encode information at one of image encoding and image decoding based on a motion-compensating prediction and a discrete cosine transformation (DCT), the apparatus comprising: an evaluation value calculation unit for calculating multiple kinds of evaluation values based on the encode information; and a determination unit for, according to a determination rule that defines relationships between (a) multiple moving objects that are to be extracted from an input image and (b) the multiple kinds of evaluation values that are calculated by the evaluation value calculation unit, determining, for each of multiple pixel blocks, which one of multiple pixel blocks corresponds to which one of the multiple moving objects, wherein the evaluation value calculation unit includes, a first evaluation value calculation unit that calculates, as one of the multiple evaluation values, a basic evaluation value based on a two-dimensional DCT coefficient derived from the discrete cosine transformation for each of the multiple pixel blocks which is used as a unit of coding, by using, as the encode information, the two-dimensional DCT coefficient based on the discrete cosine transformation; a second evaluation unit that calculates, as one of the evaluation values for each of specified object areas, a compound evaluation value by using an evaluation function that defines a combination method of the basic evaluation values that are calculated by the first evaluation unit; and a third evaluation value calculation unit that calculates, as one of the multiple evaluation values for each of the multiple pixel blocks, motion evaluation values based on a motion vector that is derived from a motion-compensating prediction which serves as the encode information, and the determination unit recognizes the moving object that at least includes a pedestrian and a vehicle, by determining whether an evaluation represented by a time-series model is significant based on a comparison between (a) time-series patterns of each of the evaluation values calculated by the evaluation value calculation unit and (b) predetermined time-series models, wherein respectively different predetermined time-series models are prepared and a behavior of the moving object that includes the pedestrian is extracted based on the predetermined time-series models and the motion evaluation values of the moving object, wherein the first evaluation unit calculates, as one of the multiple basic evaluation values, a sum total of alternate power components in the two-dimensional DCT coefficient.