Patent ID: 7881494

Claim:
A characteristic point detection method, comprising the steps of: detecting a candidate of each of a plurality of predefined target characteristic points of a predetermined object from a detection target image; obtaining an existence probability distribution for at least one of the plurality of predefined target characteristic points with respect to each of the detected candidates of the plurality of predefined target characteristic points other than the at least one of the plurality of predefined target characteristic points by using an existence probability distribution statistically obtained in advance for each combination of two different characteristic points of the plurality of predefined target characteristic points, the existence probability distribution being an existence probability distribution of one of the two different characteristic points on an image with respect to the position of the other characteristic point as a reference characteristic point, in the combination of the two different characteristic points, and integrating the obtained existence probability distributions; and estimating, using a processor, the true point of the target characteristic point on the detection target image based on the magnitude of the existence probabilities of the target characteristic point in the integrated existence probability distribution thereof, wherein the integration step performs the integration by weighting each of the obtained existence probability distributions according to the positional relationship between the reference characteristic point and the target characteristic point.