Patent ID: 8693785

Claim:
An image matching method of matching at least two images, the image matching method comprising: extracting, by an image matching device, feature points of a reference image and feature points of a target image; selecting a feature point from the features points of the reference image; mapping the selected feature point to a reference point in the target image by using a predetermined homography matrix and then performing a similarity operation; defining a matching candidate region on the target image based on the reference point, the matching candidate region being a region that is substantially smaller than a region defined by the target image and sufficiently large to include the reference point and at least two feature points of the target image; and performing a similarity operation between the selected feature point -of the reference image and the feature points of the target image provided within the matching candidate region, wherein the matching candidate region is set centered around the reference point, and wherein an area of the matching candidate region is proportional to a degree of a change in a visual point of a camera which photographs the reference image or the target image.