Patent ID: 7990417

Claim:
A targeted object pursuit system that pursues the movement of a targeted object within a plurality of sequentially captured images, said targeted object pursuit system comprising: a first setting block that initially designates a partial area of a predetermined location in said captured image as a pursuit area for pursuing said targeted object; a second setting block that designates the areas displaced from said pursuit area in a first, second, third, and fourth detailed direction as a first, second, third, and fourth candidate area, respectively, said first and second detailed directions comprising a positive component of a first general direction, said third and fourth detailed directions comprising a positive component of a second general direction, said second general direction being different from said first general direction; a recognition block that extracts a standard image corresponding to said pursuit area from said captured image captured at a first point in time, said recognition block extracting a first, second, third, and fourth candidate image corresponding to said first, second, third, and fourth candidate areas, respectively, from said captured image captured at a second point in time which is subsequent to said first point in time; a first determination block that determines in which general direction said targeted object moves during the interval between said first and second point in time is said first or second general direction based on likeness values between said standard image and said first, second, third, and fourth candidate image, said likeness values between said standard image and said first, second, third, and fourth candidate image varying according to how much said standard image accords to said first, second, third, and fourth image, respectively; a second determination block that determines in which detailed direction said targeted object moves is said first or second detailed direction based on likeness values between said standard image and said first and second candidate image when said general direction where said targeted object moves is determined to be said first general direction by said first determination block, said second determination block determines in which detailed direction said targeted object moves is said third or fourth detailed direction based on likeness values between said standard image and said third and fourth candidate image when said general direction where said targeted object moves is determined to be said second general direction by said first determination block; and a re-designation block that re-designates a candidate area that corresponds to the detailed direction which said targeted object moved as determined by said second determination block as said new pursuit area.