Patent ID: 8005295

Claim:
An image processing apparatus comprising: an initial corresponding point computing section for computing, based on image data representing a number N of images, n sets of initial corresponding points across the N images, where N and n are both integers, N≧4 and n≧4; a reference candidate generating section for selecting reference corresponding point candidates from the n sets of initial corresponding points to make M groups of reference corresponding point candidates such that each of the M groups is made up of s sets of initial corresponding points, where M and s are both integers, M≧2 and 4≦s ≦n; a coefficient calculating section for calculating photometric coefficient as a coefficient for a photometric constraint equation such that in each of the M groups of reference corresponding point candidates, luminance values of respective points on the images satisfy the photometric constraint equation; a new candidate generating section for generating multiple sets of aimed corresponding point candidates, each said set being comprised of new corresponding points that are associated with each other between the images, such that each of the M groups of reference corresponding point candidates satisfies a geometric constraint equation that is defined for that group between the images; a first selecting section for estimating, based on the luminance values of the respective points on the images and the photometric coefficient calculated, how much those sets of aimed corresponding point candidates satisfy the photometric constraint equation and selecting a single set of aimed corresponding point candidates based on a result of the estimation and outputting the set as aimed corresponding points; and a second selecting section for evaluating the M groups of reference corresponding point candidates based on the result of the estimation obtained by the first selecting section, selecting a single set of reference corresponding point candidates from the M groups based on a result of the evaluation, and outputting the selected single set of reference corresponding point candidates and aimed corresponding points associated with the selected candidates as corresponding points across the N images.