Patent ID: 7084900

Claim:
An image processing apparatus for detecting posture, or posture and position of a three-dimensional object, comprising: a plurality of stacked objects, each having identical three-dimensional shapes but different positions and postures an image capturing device; a memory storing a plurality of reference models created based on image data of a reference object captured by said image capturing device in a plurality of angular rotation directions, and storing information of the angular rotation directions respectively associated with said reference models, said reference object being an object of detection or an object having a shape identical to that of the object of detection; a processor to perform matching processing on image data containing an image of the object of detection captured by said image capturing device against said plurality of stored reference models and select an image of an object matched with one of said reference models, and to obtain posture, or posture and position of the object based on the selected image of the object, said one of said reference models and the information of said respective angular rotation directions associated with said one reference model.