Patent ID: 8155472

Claim:
An image processing apparatus comprising: an information acquisition unit that obtains position information from a memory indicating a position of a first pixel group made up with pixels set along a predetermined direction among a plurality of pixels constituting an image; and a processor including: a smoothing processing unit that executes smoothing processing on pixel values indicated at the pixels in the first pixel group; and a control unit that controls the smoothing processing unit so that the smoothing processing unit executes the smoothing processing differently when using pixel values indicated at least at some pixels in the first pixel group during the smoothing processing and when using pixel values indicated at least at some pixels in a second pixel group among the plurality of pixels during the smoothing processing, the second pixel group being different from the first pixel group wherein: the smoothing processing unit assigns either an nth (n≧2) largest pixel value among pixel values indicated at pixels in the first pixel group present near a target pixel undergoing the smoothing processing or a largest pixel value among pixel values indicated at pixels in the second pixel group, present near the target pixel undergoing the smoothing processing whichever assumes a larger value, as a reference maximum value, and corrects a pixel value at the target pixel to a smaller value if the pixel value indicated at the target pixel is larger than the reference maximum value.