Patent ID: 8503793

Claim:
A correlation processing apparatus that obtains a correlation value between an image to be found and a subimage in an image being searched, the apparatus comprising: N arithmetic circuits (where N is a positive integer), each of the N arithmetic circuits performing an arithmetic operation on a first image pixel value of a first image pixel of the image to be found and a second image pixel value of a second image pixel of the subimage (where N is a positive integer); a rectangular pattern selection circuit selecting a rectangular pattern among a plurality of predetermined rectangular patterns, the rectangular pattern including Q elements (where Q is a positive integer smaller than N), the smallest number of divisions is obtained if the image to be found is divided by the rectangular pattern; a control circuit activating Q arithmetic circuits among the N arithmetic circuits and identifying Q first image pixel values and Q second image pixel values on which the arithmetic operations are performed by the Q arithmetic circuits; an accumulator accumulating the results of the arithmetic operations performed by the Q arithmetic circuits; a register holding location information of the subimage, wherein the control circuit identifies the Q second pixel values on the basis of the location information; a first memory storing the first pixel values of pixels of the image to be found; and a second memory storing second image pixel values of pixels of the image being searched; wherein the control circuit identifies the Q second pixel values from among the second image pixel values.