Patent ID: 7633077

Claim:
An apparatus for capturing a radiation image of a subject by applying radiation emitted from a radiation source through the subject to a radiation image recording medium, comprising: image reading means for reading a radiation image recorded on the radiation image recording medium and generating subject data from the read radiation image; direction detecting means for detecting a direction of said radiation image recording medium with respect to said subject; imaging direction determining means for determining the direction of said radiation image recording medium with respect to said subject during imaging of the subject, based on the detected direction, and generating imaging direction information representing the determined direction; image direction judging means for judging a direction of subject data with respect to a reading direction in which said radiation image is read by said image reading means, and generating image direction information representing the judged direction; displaying direction determining means for determining a displaying direction of said subject data based on said imaging direction information and said image direction information, and generating displaying direction information representing the determined displaying direction; display means for displaying said subject data in said displaying direction based on said displaying direction information; and subject pattern information storage means for storing a plurality of subject pattern information representing the subject data disposed in predetermined directions with respect to said reading direction, wherein said image direction judging means reads one of said subject pattern information which matches the direction of the subject data from said subject pattern information storage means, compares the read subject pattern information with said subject data in order to determine the direction of said subject data, and generates the image direction information representing the determined direction, and wherein the subject pattern information represents classified image data of shape patterns of the subject data.