To eliminate the drawback of a cellular phone that efficient use of animations with the cellular phone is difficult because of rigid limitations on memory, the power of a CPU, and power consumption, etc.
An image input part 12 inputs first and second images. A matching processor 14 effects pixel matching between the images so that, for the grid points of a mesh formed on the first image, their matching points are determined on the second image. The result is recorded as a file F of matching points. An intermediate image forming part 18 forms an intermediate image between the first and second images based on the file F of matching points. For colors, information about differences between pairs of matching points between the first and second images is included in the file F. During interpolation, the file F plus only the first image are needed.
AKIYOSHI NOBUO
SHINAGAWA YOSHIHISA
