Patent ID: 8891877

Claim:
A data processing apparatus for processing one or more partial images extracted from a frame image of a moving image that contains a plurality of frame images, comprising: a memory; and a processor in communication with the memory, the processor configured to provide: a plurality of discriminators, wherein each discriminator is assigned to any of a plurality of stages, wherein each stage comprises identification processing, and in a case where it has been determined that an image that has been processed by a stage corresponds to a specific pattern at that stage, the stage outputs that image to a subsequent stage to cause that image to be processed in the subsequent stage, and wherein each discriminator determines whether or not a partial image extracted from the frame image of the moving image corresponds to a specific pattern by identification processing according to the stage to which that discriminator is assigned; an assignment unit that assigns the discriminators to the stages such that a plurality of partial images are processed in parallel; a calculation unit that calculates a passage rate or an accumulated passage rate for each of a plurality of regions in the frame image, said calculation unit calculating the passage rate or accumulated passage rate for a given region from a ratio of a number of partial images of that region input to a stage to a number of partial images of that region determined to correspond to the specific pattern, and said calculation unit holding the calculated passage rate or accumulated passage rate for each region on a stage basis in a holding unit; and a changing unit that causes said assignment unit to change assignment of the discriminators to the stages for each region in the frame image in the moving image respectively, based at least in part on the passage rate or the accumulated passage rate held in the holding unit for a corresponding region in a previous frame image, the corresponding region in the previous frame image being determined by the position of each pixel being moved back by an amount of movement indicated by a motion vector corresponding to that pixel, and the passage rate or accumulated passage rate of a region to which the moved position belongs being used as the passage rate or accumulated passage rate for the corresponding region in the previous frame image.