Patent ID: 8351658

Claim:
An eyelid detection apparatus, comprising: a face image storing means storing a plurality of face images of a subject captured at different timings; a change detecting means detecting changes in each face image caused by blinking after processing the plurality of face images stored by the face image storing means; an eyelid detecting means detecting a position of an eyelid of the subject based on the changes detected by the change detecting means; an edge line extracting means extracting edge lines, each corresponding to a boundary of an image region, after processing the plurality of face images stored by the face image storing means; and an eyelid candidate extracting means extracting edge line pairs, which are candidates for a combination of edge lines corresponding to upper and lower eyelids, from the edge lines extracted by the edge line extracting means, wherein the eyelid detecting means comprises an eyelid identifying means identifying an edge line pair including an upper eyelid candidate edge line whose representative point moves in a predetermined direction as the combination of the edge lines corresponding to the upper and lower eyelids of the subject, from the edge line pairs extracted by the eyelid candidate extracting means.