Patent ID: 8548247

Claim:
An image processing apparatus comprising: photographic subject map generating means for extracting, from an input image, a feature quantity of a feature included in a region of a photographic subject in the input image, and generating a photographic subject map that indicates the likeliness of each region of the input image being a region of the photographic subject; first threshold processing means for binarizing the photographic subject map by performing threshold processing using a first threshold, and generating a first threshold map for specifying a connected region including the photographic subject; second threshold processing means for binarizing the photographic subject map by performing threshold processing using a second threshold, and generating a second threshold map for specifying a region that is in the connected region specified based on the first threshold map and that is likely to be the photographic subject; composite map generating means for generating a composite map for specifying a region of the photographic subject in the input image by regarding that, in one or a plurality of connected regions specified based on the first threshold map, the connected region including the region specified, based on the second threshold map, as the region that is likely to be the photographic subject is a region of the photographic subject; wherein the composite map is information in which binary information indicating whether each region of the input image is a region of the photographic subject is arranged corresponding to each region of the input image; and photographic subject specifying information generating means for generating photographic subject specifying information that specifies a region of the photographic subject in the input image by obtaining an AND of the composite map and the photographic subject map and binarizing an arithmetic result of the AND by performing threshold processing using a third threshold.