Patent ID: 8803886

Claim:
A facial image display apparatus, comprising: facial detecting means for detecting areas containing faces in a target image displaying a plurality of faces, wherein the target image is a still image; path creating means for automatically creating, using the areas containing faces detected by the facial detecting means, a path across the still image connecting the detected areas containing faces; moving image output means for creating a moving image in which a camera scrolls across the target image according to the path created by the path creating means, wherein the moving image contains the areas containing faces from the target image; and detection time estimating means for estimating the time needed for the facial area detecting means to detect facial areas in one or a plurality of other target images in cases in which the moving image output means outputs the moving images on the basis of a plurality of target images; wherein the moving image output means outputs the moving image over a time duration determined on the basis of the detection time estimated by the detection time estimating means; and wherein the facial detecting means detects areas containing faces contained in said one or a plurality of other target images during the period in which the moving image is outputted by the moving image output means, wherein the path creating means comprises: feature area determining means for determining at least two feature areas including one or more areas containing faces in the still image; extraction sequence determining means for determining the sequence of the areas containing faces in the path on the basis of specific conditions regarding attributes of the feature areas; and path determining means for creating the path on the basis of the feature areas and the extraction sequence.