Patent ID: 7248750

Claim:
An object information processing apparatus for obtaining object information from input image data comprising pixels, comprising: an object determination section for determining whether or not each pixel is a part of an object to be extracted by comparing color information indicating a color of the pixel with a predetermined reference value for the object; an object information retaining section for retaining coordinate data of the pixel as the object information if the pixel has been determined by the object determination section to be a part of the object to be extracted; and a noise removal section for removing noise from a result of determination by the object determination section, wherein the noise removal section comprises, a shift register section for successively retaining the result of determination by the object determination section, the shift register section including a plurality of shift register units corresponding to a number of determination operations of the object determination section, and a noise removal determination section for determining whether or not a predetermined number or more of a plurality of results of the shift register section are equal to one another to determine whether or not the plurality of results are noise, and wherein the predetermined number or more of the plurality of results of the shift register section represents a majority of shift register units of the shift register section, and if the majority of shift register units have the same result for the pixel, the pixel is determined to be part of an object to be extracted, but not noise.