To separate a background from image data to extract an area corresponding to an object to be recognized.

In an image obtained by passing background-included image data taken by imaging with a focus camera through a 33 filter that the coefficient of a target pixel is 8 and the coefficient of all of 8 pixels in the vicinity thereof is -1, a black area indicates an out-of-focus pixel that the difference between it and the vicinity pixel is nearly zero and a bright (white) area indicates an in-focus pixel having a sharp pattern. A filtering process of determining an average between the target pixel and its vicinity area is performed on the image to bind an area looking like the object to be recognized thereto. After a result of filtering has been binarized, Morphological processing is performed or masking is performed on a part which is not the black area from which the value is generated as the result of filtering to divide the area to separate the background from the image data. The present invention is applied to the image processing system, a learning device or a recognition device.