Patent Document ID: 7970207
Application ID: 11902344
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. An image evaluating apparatus, comprising: boundary extracting means, for extracting boundaries among a plurality of subjects which are pictured in a digital photographic image; image region extracting means, for extracting image regions, which are divided by the extracted boundaries, from the digital photographic image; image region position judging means, for dividing the digital photographic image into a plurality of sections, and judging which of the divided sections each of the image regions are included in; image region feature judging means, for judging the features of each image region, by analyzing at least one of the color, texture, and shape of the image regions; and image evaluating means, for evaluating whether the digital photographic image is that which has a sense of spread, that which has a sense of depth, and whether the digital photographic image is a divisible image which can be divided into two or more parts, based on the extracted boundaries, the sections in which the image regions are included, and the features of each image region, wherein: the boundary extracting means comprises: edge extracting means, for extracting edges from the digital photographic image; reduced color image generating means, for generating a reduced color image, in which the colors of pixels having colors within a predetermined distance from a reference color within a color space are replaced by a single color within the predetermined distance; and texture distribution calculating means, for obtaining index values that represent bias of texture distribution within judgment regions of the reduced color image having a uniform range, based on index values that represent the bias in the distribution of each color within each judgment region, by dividing pixels within each judgment region, which straddles an edge of the extracted edges, into groups of pixels according to color, and obtaining the index values that represent the bias in the distribution of each color; and wherein: edges are extracted as the boundaries, if the distribution of the texture within the judgment regions are judged not to be uniform between two sides of the judgment regions which are divided by the edges, based on the index values that represent the biases in the texture distributions.