Patent Document ID: 8224038
Application ID: 12191027
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A picture processing apparatus comprising: a face area detecting unit that detects face areas each of which is an image area presumed to be a person's face, from frames constituting elements of a picture; a feature amount calculating unit that calculates a feature amount of each of the frames; a cut detecting unit that detects a cut point at which a screen image is switched to another screen image between the frames that are temporally successive, by using the feature amount; a face attribute assigning unit that assigns a mutually same face attribute value to each of the face areas, when groups of coordinates of the face areas between the temporally successive frames where the cut point is not present are within a predetermined error range; a similar shot detecting unit that, when a difference in the feature amounts between the frames is within a predetermined error range, selects two shots from which the frames have respectively been extracted and each of which is an aggregate of the frames within a time period obtained as a result of dividing at the cut point, and, when a difference in the feature amounts between a pair of one or more target frames selected from each of the two shots is within the predetermined error range, detects shots as similar shots to each of which a mutually same shot attribute value is assigned; and a face attribute re-assigning unit that assigns a mutually same face attribute value to each of the face areas, when the groups of coordinates of the face areas that respectively appear in the temporally successive frames contained in the similar shots and to which mutually different face attribute values have respectively been assigned are within the predetermined error range and the face areas having the different face attribute values are judged to be a face of a mutually same person.