Patent ID: 6862369

Claim:
An image processing apparatus comprising: a selector, arranged to select a plurality of feature points on or near a contour line of a region of interest when a contour of the region of interest in a reference image sensed at reference time or viewpoint is input; a memory, arranged to store connectivity information on a connectivity between the plurality of selected feature points; a seeker, arranged to seek a plurality of corresponding points, which respectively correspond to the plurality of feature points, in an image to be sought, which is sensed at another time or viewpoint; and an extractor, arranged to extract a contour between the plurality of corresponding points as a region of interest of the image to be sought on the basis of the connectivity information stored in said memory, wherein said extractor respectively sets as start and end points two of the corresponding points that have substantially a same connectivity as the selected feature points, and performs a trace between the start and end points in accordance with a predetermined set of directions to extract the contour.