Patent ID: 7274819

Claim:
A pattern recognition apparatus comprising: data inputting means for inputting image data by time-sequentially inputting blocks of the image data, each of the blocks being a predetermined size; position information inputting means for inputting position information representing a position of each of the blocks in the input image data; pattern detection means for detecting a low-order feature pattern of a predetermined category from each block of the input image data; prediction means for predicting a category and a position of a first low-order feature pattern to be detected on the basis of a second low-order feature pattern which has been detected; time-sequential consolidation means for time-sequentially consolidating low-order feature patterns detected from a plurality of blocks of the input image data by said pattern detection means on the basis of the position information input by said position information inputting means and the category of each detected feature pattern, the consolidated low-order feature patterns forming a high-order feature pattern, said time-sequential consolidation means comparing a category of the first low-order feature pattern detected at the predicted position with the predicted category and determining the likelihood of presence of the high-order feature pattern formed by the first low-order feature pattern on the basis of a result of the comparison; and judgment means for judging a position and a category of a high-order feature pattern present in the input image data, on the basis of the output from said time-sequential consolidation means.