Patent ID: 8411160

Claim:
An apparatus to detect a main subject from an obtained image, comprising: an image obtaining unit which obtains the image including the main subject; a sound obtaining unit which obtains a sound emitted from the main subject; and a main subject detection unit which detects an image region of the main subject in the image based on the image obtained by the image obtaining unit and the sound obtained by the sound obtaining unit; wherein the main subject detection unit comprises: a determination unit which determines whether or not the sound obtained by the sound obtaining unit has at least a predetermined volume; a detection information specification unit which specifies sound related information for detecting the main subject based on the sound obtained by the sound obtaining unit, when the determination unit determines that the sound has at least the predetermined volume; a first detection unit which detects the image region of the main subject in the image based on the image obtained by the image obtaining unit and the sound related information specified by the detection information specification unit, when the determination unit determines that the sound has at least the predetermined volume; and a second detection unit which detects the image region of the main subject in the image based on the image obtained by the image obtaining unit, and not based on any sound related information specified by the detection information specification unit, when the determination unit determines that the sound does not have at least the predetermined volume.