Patent ID: 8594396

Claim:
An image processing apparatus for performing an image processing on a body cavity image captured in a living body, the image processing apparatus comprising: a storage unit which stores information including image information of the body cavity image; a change amount calculator which reads out the image information of the body cavity image from the storage unit and calculates, in the read out image information, a pixel value change amount of a pixel of interest relative to a plurality of surrounding pixels located around the pixel of interest; and a candidate lesion region detector which detects a candidate lesion region in the body cavity image based on a calculation result by the change amount calculator, wherein the detected candidate lesion region is indicative of non-healthy tissue in the living body, wherein the image processing apparatus further comprises an inter-surrounding-pixel change amount calculator which calculates a surrounding pixel value change amount between the plurality of surrounding pixels, wherein the candidate lesion region detector detects a candidate lesion region based on the calculation result of the change amount calculator and on a calculation result of the inter-surrounding-pixel change amount calculator, and wherein the candidate lesion region detector includes a weighted change amount calculator which calculates a weighted pixel value change amount via a weighting by using the pixel value change amount with the surrounding pixels calculated by the change amount calculator and the surrounding pixel value change amount calculated by the inter-surrounding-pixel change amount calculator.