To highly precisely decide whether or not a template image is similar to a previously selected candidate image.
A candidate image Bi which is similar or likely to coincide with an image A is selected, and a feature point ai is extracted from the image A by a feature point extracting means 1, and a partial image ti with each feature point as a center is segmented. The partial image similar to the partial image ti is searched from each image Bi by a similar image retrieving means 3. The position or relative position of the partial image corresponding to each feature point ai in the image Bi is compared with the position or relative position of the partial image ti by a partial image position comparing means 4, and whether the image A and the image B are similar or identical is judged from the relation of the positions or relative positions by a similar image deciding means 5. Also, whether the image A and the image B are similar or identical may be decided from the distribution of numerics showing the similarity of the partial image ti to the similar image in the image B.
Akira Yamatani
Yoshiyoshi Ogasawara