Patent ID: 7567688

Claim:
An apparatus for extracting an image of one object by comparing images obtained respectively by a plurality of imaging units, comprising: a luminance signal adjusting unit for using one of the imaging units as a reference imaging unit and another imaging unit than said reference imaging unit as a searching imaging unit, and adjusting a luminance signal from said reference imaging unit or said searching imaging unit such that the luminance signal of a reference image obtained by said reference imaging unit is greater by a predetermined amount than the luminance signal of a searching image obtained by said searching imaging unit; an object area setting unit for setting an object area including a particular object in said reference image; an image comparing unit for comparing an image of said object area and said searching image with each other; and an image extracting unit for extracting an image relating to said particular object from said searching image based on a comparison result from said image comparing unit; wherein said image comparing unit performs correlative calculations on said images, and said image extracting unit extracts an image for which the results of the correlative calculations are minimum as said image relating to said particular object; wherein said correlative calculations satisfy the equation MAD 2 −MAD 1 =a 1− b 2− a 1− a 2>0, Where MAD 1 is an evaluating value for the correlative calculations if the particular objects in the reference and searching images match each other, MAD 2 is an evaluating value for the correlative calculations if the particular objects in the reference and searching images do not match each other, a 1 is the luminance signal of the particular object obtained by the reference imaging unit, b 1 is the luminance signal of the background around the particular object by the reference imaging unit, a 2 is the luminance signal of the particular object obtained by the searching imaging unit, and b 2 is the luminance signal of the background around the object by the searching imaging unit.