Patent ID: 8160370

Claim:
An image processing apparatus comprising: image pyramid forming means for forming an image pyramid by creating layered image data including images at different scales in a hierarchical arrangement from inputted image data; position calculating means for determining an in-image-pyramid position that is a height position in the image pyramid to which template image data corresponds, the template image data having an image portion of a target object at a fixed scale; upper-layer-side likelihood calculating means for determining a likelihood with respect to a target object by matching between upper-side layer image data that exists directly above the in-image-pyramid position, and a state prediction; lower-layer-side likelihood calculating means for determining a likelihood with respect to a target object by matching between lower-side layer image data that exists directly below the in-image-pyramid position, and a state prediction; and true likelihood calculating means for determining a true likelihood from the likelihoods determined by the upper-layer-side likelihood calculating means and the lower-layer-side likelihood calculating means.