Patent ID: 7672538

Claim:
An image generating device for generating a still image from a plurality of frame images contained in a video sequence, the device comprising: a synthesis object setting module for setting, from among areas included in frame images other than a reference frame image selected from among the plurality of frame images, one or more areas as object frame image areas for synthesis, the object frame image areas being selected according to a predetermined rule relating to a reference frame image area within the reference frame image; a comparison reference extracting module for extracting one comparison reference frame image area from among the reference frame image area and the object frame image areas for synthesis; a target extracting module for extracting one target frame image area from among the object frame image areas for synthesis other than the comparison reference frame image area; a comparing module for comparing the comparison reference frame image area with the target frame image area to calculate a relative image shift amount between the comparison reference frame image area and the target frame image area, the calculating of the relative image shift amount including detecting a shift (u, v) of the target frame image area with respect to the comparison reference frame image area, and calculating a local shift amount (Δu, Δv) as absolute values of a difference between (u, v) and integers closest to (u, v); an excluding module for excluding the target frame image area from the object frame image areas for synthesis if the relative image shift amount is less than a predetermined value; and a synthesized image generating module for synthesizing the reference frame image area and the object frame image areas for synthesis to create a synthesized image area of a still image that has a higher resolution than the frame images, wherein each module in the image generating device is executed by an integrated circuit.