Patent ID: 8456536

Claim:
An image processing apparatus that processes a captured image captured by an imaging device, the captured image depicting one or more subjects, the captured image having, for each of the one or more subjects, one or more white areas depicting whites of eyes of that subject and one or more iris areas depicting irises of the eyes of that subject, the apparatus comprising: a sightline detection unit that: calculates a ratio of the size of the white areas and the size of the iris areas for each of the one or more subjects, and based on the calculated ratio, detects whether a line of sight of each of the one or more subjects is directed toward the imaging device; and a sightline indicating unit that indicates, in correspondence to each of the one or more subjects, whether it has been detected that the line of sight of that subject is directed toward said imaging device, based upon sightline detection results provided by said sightline detection unit.