Patent ID: 7450160

Claim:
An auto white balance apparatus for applying white balance adjustment to a picked-up image, comprising: block-dividing means for dividing an input image into a plurality of blocks; typical-value calculating means for calculating, for each block, a typical value including luminance and color difference representing the block in accordance with each color value in the block; and white balance adjusting means for applying white balance adjustment to the image in accordance with the typical value of each block; wherein the block-dividing means includes parent block-dividing means for dividing an input image into a plurality of parent blocks, and child block-dividing means for dividing each parent block into a plurality of child blocks; the typical-value calculating means includes parent typical-value calculating means for calculating a typical value including luminance and color difference representing a parent block in accordance with each color value in a parent block, child typical-value calculating means for calculating a typical value including luminance and color difference representing a child block in accordance with each color value in a child block, child block selecting means for selecting several desired child blocks out of a child block group included in a parent block in accordance with comparison between parent typical color difference and child typical color difference of each child block included in the parent block, and parent typical value recalculating means for recalculating the typical value of a parent block in accordance with the typical value of each selected child block; and the white balance adjusting means performs white balance adjustment for the image in accordance with the typical value of each recalculated parent block.