Patent ID: 8866811

Claim:
An image processing apparatus comprising: a processor; a first acquisition unit which acquires position and orientation information of a viewpoint of an observer; a second acquisition unit which acquires position and orientation information of a hand of the observer; a determination unit which determines whether or not a virtual hand, which has the same appearance as the hand of the observer and is to be arranged at the position and orientation of the hand of the observer, overlaps on a virtual object to be observed in a view from the viewpoint of the observer, based on the acquired position and orientation information of the viewpoint of the observer and the acquired position and orientation information of the hand of the observer; a first rendering unit which renders the virtual object to be observed without rendering the virtual hand on an image of a real space including the hand of the observer, in case it is not determined that the virtual hand overlaps on the virtual object to be observed in the view from the viewpoint of the observer; and a second rendering unit which renders the virtual object to be observed and the virtual hand on the image of the real space including the hand of the observer in such a way that the virtual hand is visibly placed in front of the virtual object to be observed as if the hand of the observer would be placed in front of the virtual object to be observed, in case it is determined that the virtual hand overlaps on the virtual object to be observed in the view from the viewpoint of the observer; wherein the determination unit, the first rendering unit and the second rendering unit are implemented by the processor.