Patent ID: 8068700

Claim:
An image processing apparatus comprising: an image input portion receiving (N+1) low-resolution images (where N is an integer of 2 or more); a motion amount detector taking one of the (N+1) low-resolution images as a datum image and detecting a amount of motion between the low-resolution image taken as the datum image and each of the other N low-resolution images; an image evaluator selecting, based on the detected amounts of motion, M (where M is an integer of 1 or more fulfilling N>M) out of the N low-resolution images each as a consulted image; and a resolution enhancer producing, based on the detected amounts of motion, the datum image, and the M consulted images, a high-resolution image having higher resolution than the low-resolution images, wherein the image evaluator takes each of the N low-resolution images as an evaluated image, and when an image coordinate system common to the datum image and the evaluated images is called a common coordinate system and, based on the detected amounts of motion, the datum image and the evaluated images are arranged in the common coordinate system, the image evaluator sets, based on a pixel position on the datum image in the common coordinate system, a datum position in the common coordinate system, evaluates, for each evaluated image, a distance between the datum position and a pixel position on said each evaluated image, and selects, as the consulted image, an evaluated image corresponding to a relatively small distance while excluding, from the M consulted images, an evaluated image corresponding to a relatively great distance.