Patent ID: 8355537

Claim:
An image processing apparatus comprising: area registration unit configured to register an image in a specific area of an image included in a moving image as a reference area to be tracked; detection unit configured to detect hues for respective pixels in the reference area; setting unit configured to set a range of hues of pixels, the number of which is larger than the predetermined number of pixels in a distribution of the hues of the pixels in the reference area, as a first feature amount of the reference area; and identifying unit configured to identify an area having the highest degree of correlation with the reference area in an image of a frame after the image including the reference area, wherein when an occupation ratio of pixels having hues included in a second feature amount as a distribution of hues in the reference area, which is obtained by expanding the hue range of the first feature amount, in an area larger than the reference area is smaller than a predetermined ratio, the identifying unit identifies the area having a high degree of correlation with the reference area using the second feature amount, and when the occupation ratio of pixels having hues included in the second feature amount is not less than the predetermined ratio, the identifying unit identifies the area having a high degree of correlation with the reference area using the first feature amount.