Patent ID: 7688988

Claim:
A particular image area partitioning apparatus comprising: particular image detection device for detecting whether or not a particular image is included in an image represented by applied image data; projection information creation device for setting, when the particular image is detected by the particular image detection device, a plurality of projection information creating windows having a predetermined shape radially from an arbitrary point represented by the image data including the detected particular image, and creating, with respect to each of image portions within the set plurality of projection information creating windows, projection information obtained by adding pixel information for each unit pixel position in the radial directions from the arbitrary point, wherein each of the plurality of projection information creating windows has a width along the radial direction and a height perpendicular to the radial direction, and the addition of the pixel information adds pixel information in a vertical direction along the height within the set plurality of projection information creating windows; boundary position determination device for determining, with respect to each of the image portions within the plurality of projection information creating windows, a boundary position between the particular image and an image other than the particular image on the basis of the projection information for unit pixel position obtained by the projection information creation device; and particular area determination device for determining a particular image area by connecting the plurality of boundary positions, adjacent to one another, determined by the boundary position determination device.