Patent ID: 8457351

Claim:
An image processing method of detecting a detection object from a two-dimensional image in which pixels are lined up in both a first direction and a second direction that are different from each other, comprising: obtaining the two-dimensional image; integrating brightness of pixels of the two-dimensional image lined up in the first direction; deriving a change in an integrated value of the two-dimensional image in the second direction; obtaining a quadratic differential value of the derived change; detecting a plurality of locations in the second direction, which indicate minimum values in ascending order of the obtained quadratic differential value among the integrated brightness of pixels in the first direction, as locations corresponding to candidates of a detection object on the basis of the derived change in an integrated value; detecting a range in the first direction based on a change of brightness of a pixel lined up in the first direction as a candidate of the detection object for each of rows of pixels lined up in the first direction corresponding to each detected location; and specifying the detection object from candidates of the detection object on the basis of length of the detected range.