Patent ID: 7548260

Claim:
An image processing method, comprising: determining a background area of an image; determining a person area of the image as an area of the image other than the background area of the image; and sizing the image based on a size of the person area of the image such that the size of the person area is a predetermined person area size, wherein the step of determining the background area of the image comprises: separating the image into a plurality of areas by an area separating device; and wherein the step of separating the image into the plurality of areas comprises: comparing properties of adjoining pixels of the image; and determining that two adjoining pixels belong in the same area if the compared properties of the two adjoining pixels are less than predetermined thresholds for each property compared, and determining whether or not the each area of the plurality of areas belongs in the background area based on a comparison of the each area with a reference background area, wherein the reference background area includes at least one corner of the image, and wherein the step of determining whether or not the each area of the plurality of areas belongs in the background area based on the comparison of the each area with the reference background area includes determining that the each area belongs in the background area if a difference between an average luminance value of the pixels of the each area and an average luminance value of the reference background area is within a predetermined luminance difference threshold and a difference between an average chromaticity value of the pixels of the each area and an average chromaticity value of the reference background area is within a predetermined chromaticity difference threshold, or a difference between an average red (R) value of the pixels of the each area and an average R value of the reference background area is within a predetermined R difference threshold, a difference between an average green (G) value of the pixels of the each area and an average G value of the reference background area is within a predetermined G difference threshold and a difference between an average blue (B) value of the pixels of the each area and an average B value of the reference background area is within a predetermined B difference threshold.