Patent ID: 8036443

Claim:
An image processing method for performing an image processing to obtain an image suitable for diagnosis for a radiation image having a signal according to an irradiation dose of radiation that is transmitted through a subject, the image processing method comprising: detecting a bone portion or a soft tissue portion included in the radiation image as an important area; creating a weight image for imparting a predetermined weight to pixels of the important area; creating a weighted histogram by multiplying the weight of the weight image by a pixel value of the radiation image and computing the weighted histogram from results of the multiplication; evaluating the weighted histogram with a predetermined evaluation function and computing a shift value at which an evaluation result takes on a maximum value; determining an image processing condition so as to obtain a predetermined processing result from the pixel value of the radiation image corresponding to a maximum value of the evaluation function for obtaining the shift value; and executing the image processing under the determined image processing condition.