Patent Document ID: 20140118341
Application ID: 14022631
Patent Status: 0

Claim One:
1. An image processing apparatus, comprising: a processor; and a memory storing instructions, which, when executed by the processor, perform a procedure, the procedure including: (a) acquiring image data representing successively captured images of a moving body's surroundings, and acquiring 3D position data representing 3D positions of a plurality of points on a solid object present in the moving body's surroundings as expressed in a moving body coordinate system set for the moving body; (b) calculating a movement amount that the moving body has moved during an interval from a first time to a second time; (c) identifying pixels representing a solid object in a first image captured at the first time based on the 3D position data acquired by (a); (d) creating, by virtual viewpoint projection, a first correspondence relationship indicating correspondence between each point on a three dimensional projection plane determined so as to contain the moving body therein at the first time and positions of each pixel of the first image, and, based on the movement amount calculated by (b), creating, by virtual viewpoint projection, a second correspondence relationship indicating correspondence between each point on the three dimensional projection plane and positions of each pixel in a second image captured at the second time by expressing the position of the moving body at the second time in the moving body coordinate system at the first time; and (e) synthesizing a synthesized image by taking pixel values of pixels in a synthesized image corresponding to each point on the three dimensional projection plane as viewed from a specific viewpoint position, as pixel values of corresponding pixels of the first image based on the first correspondence relationship, and taking pixel values of each pixel in the synthesized image corresponding to pixels identified by (c) in the first image as being pixels representing a solid object, as pixel values of corresponding pixels of the second image based on the second correspondence relationship.