Patent ID: 7590266

Claim:
An image processing apparatus comprising: means for photo-capturing objects; a calculating unit; and a storage unit including a recognition database, wherein the calculating unit converts pixels of single two-dimensional-image data showing each object into an N-dimensional converted values and calculates N-dimensional estimated feature values which are parameters for expressing a group of the N-dimensional converted values by the following expression, ∑ j = 1 m ⁢ ⁢ ξ j ⁢ p ⁡ ( x ; θ j ) ( 1 ) where: x denotes the N-dimensional converted value; ξ j and θ j are included in the N-dimensional estimated feature values; p(x; θ j ) represents an element distribution; N is an integer larger than 2; and m is a natural number, wherein the calculated N-dimensional estimated feature values for each object maximizes a likelihood that the group of N-dimensional converted values for each object is expressed by the expression (1), the storage unit stores in the recognition database N-dimensional estimated feature values for each object and object identifying information, which indicates each object, in association with each other, the calculating unit executes a recognition process that compares N-dimensional estimated feature values for an aimed object with the N-dimensional estimated feature values for the objects stored in the recognition database, each N-dimensional converted value includes a position coordinate value of the corresponding pixel and a pixel value of the corresponding pixel.