Patent ID: 7457432

Claim:
A specified object detection apparatus comprising: a storage unit for storing each judgment value prepared in accordance with each of a plurality of rectangle patterns, a judgment value representing the possibility that the specified object is included in an intended area; a calculation unit comprising a plurality of layers, each layer for calculating features of different patterns in a same intended area from an image by calculation processes corresponding respectively to each pattern; and a first judging unit for outputting a judgment result whether a specified object is included in the intended area based on the judgment values stored in the storage unit and corresponding to the features calculated by the calculation unit; and, a control unit for applying to the first judging unit a plurality of patterns as a set obtained though a plurality of different calculation processes executed each by a layer of the calculation unit thereby to acquire the judgment results in a number sufficient to obtain a final judgment from the first judging unit; and a second judging unit for finally judging whether a specified object is included in the intended area, based on a plurality of results of the judgment made by the first judging unit and acquired by the control unit, wherein the storage unit stores further a number of points assigned to each rectangle pattern, the first judging unit calculates further a total number of points for each layer based on the judgment values stored in the storage unit and corresponding to the features calculated by the calculation unit, said total number of points being based on the number of points assigned to each pattern of the layer for which the judgment is whether the specified object is included in the intended area, the judgment result of the layer representing whether a specified object is included in the intended area being based on this total number of points, the first judging unit provides the plurality of the results of the judgments of whether a specified object is included in the intended area and a judgment from each layer is made referring to the result of a preceding judgment from the immediately preceding layer.