Patent ID: 7466453

Claim:
An image processing apparatus comprising: a first characteristic detection unit that detects an edge area as binary information from an image; a second characteristic detection unit that detects an edge amount as N value information, where N is an integer greater than two, from the image; a third characteristic detection unit that selects the edge area as a third characteristic when the first characteristic detection unit detects the edge area, and selects the edge amount detected by the second characteristic detection unit as the third characteristic when the first characteristic detection unit does not detect the edge area; and a control unit that provides a control to perform a specified processing to the image using the third characteristic, wherein the third characteristic takes a maximum value of the edge amount when the third characteristic detection unit has selected the first characteristic, and wherein the third characteristic is detected from the first characteristic and the second characteristic based on the following expression, E 3=(α× E 1 +β×E 2)/(α+β), α≧β where E 1 represents the first characteristic, E 2 represents the second characteristic and E 3 represents the third characteristic, and α and β are parameters of weighting, and wherein E 3 becomes an average value of the characteristics E 1 and E 2 when α=β.