Patent ID: 7305106

Claim:
An object detection apparatus for detecting a target object in an image, comprising: a template memory portion for memorizing a template consisting of one or more open curves indicating a part of a contour of a model of the object or a part of the model; an image input portion for entering an image to be detected; a detection portion for detecting the object in the entered image by calculating a matching degree of the entered image with the template; an edge image generation portion for generating an edge image of the entered image; an overlapping portion for overlapping the generated edge image with the template; and a count portion for counting the number of times of overlapping of the template with the one or more open curves for each pixel in the edge image when the overlapping portion performed the overlapping process for each pixel on an edge of the edge image, wherein the template memory portion has a template that is made of one or more open curves indicating a part of a contour of a model of the object or a part of the model and a point indicating a predetermined position of the model, and is made by rotating the one or more open curves around the point by a half-turn, the overlapping portion overlaps the edge image with the template so that a pixel on the edge of the edge image matches the point of the template, and the detection portion detects the object by calculating the matching degree in accordance with the number of times counted by the count portion.