Patent Document ID: 8976182
Application ID: 13372537
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A facial sketch creation device, comprising: an image acquisition portion that acquires a facial image of a user; a characteristic point acquisition portion that acquires position information for characteristic points that pertain to a plurality of facial features within the facial image; a facial type classification portion that, using the position information for the characteristic points, classifies the facial image as a facial type based on relative positions of the plurality of facial features; a configuration information generation portion that generates configuration information by taking an initial configuration that is based on the position information for the characteristic points and performing modification of the initial configuration by enhancing characteristics that indicate the classified facial type; and a facial sketch creation portion that creates a facial sketch by positioning the plurality of facial features based on the configuration information, wherein the facial type classification portion includes a first classification portion that classifies the facial image as one of a closely grouped features type, for which the relative positions of the plurality of facial features exhibit a characteristic of being shifted inward with respect to a facial outline, and a widely spaced features type, for which the relative positions of the facial features exhibit a characteristic of being shifted outward with respect to the facial outline, the classifying of the facial image being based on horizontal axis position information that has been acquired by the characteristic point acquisition portion and that indicates a left eye, a right eye, a left edge of the facial outline, and a right edge of the facial outline, wherein the configuration information generation portion includes a first enhancement processing portion that modifies at least one of vertical axis position information and the horizontal axis position information for the plurality of facial features that are positioned within the facial outline, based on the result of the classification by the first classification portion, and wherein the first enhancement processing portion performs modification processing such that the plurality of facial features are shifted closer to the center of the face if the facial image is classified as the closely grouped features type, and the first enhancement processing portion performs modification processing such that the plurality of facial features are shifted toward the outer side of the facial outline if the facial image is classified as the widely spaced features type.