Characteristic region extraction device, characteristic region extraction method, and characteristic region extraction program

A characteristic region extracting device which comprises

• an image data acquiring unit to acquire the first image data representing the first image and the second image data representing the second image, said image data representing an image with pixels arranged in a dot matrix pattern,
• an edge pixel detecting unit to detect the edge pixels of the image according to the first image data and the second image data,
• a characteristic point extracting unit to extract the characteristic point in the first image and the characteristic point in the second image when a pattern formed by the detected edge pixels and their neighboring pixels is similar to a prescribed object to be extracted,
• an arrangement pattern data creating unit to create the arrangement pattern data which indicates the arrangement pattern based on the extracted characteristic point in the first image, and
• a characteristic region defining unit to reference the thus created arrangement pattern data and define as the characteristic region the region in which the characteristic point in the second image approximately coincides with the arrangement pattern.

A characteristic region extracting method which comprises

• an image data acquiring step to acquire the first image data representing the first image and the second image data representing the second image, said image data representing an image with pixels arranged in a dot matrix pattern,
• an edge pixel detecting step to detect the edge pixels of the image according to the first image data and the second image data,
• a characteristic point extracting step to extract the characteristic point in the first image and the characteristic point in the second image when a pattern formed by the detected edge pixels and their neighboring pixels is similar to a prescribed object to be extracted,
• an arrangement pattern data creating step to create the arrangement pattern data which indicates the arrangement pattern based on the extracted characteristic point in the first image, and
• a characteristic region defining step to reference the thus created arrangement pattern data and define as the characteristic region the region in which the characteristic point in the second image approximately coincides with the arrangement pattern.

A characteristic region extracting program which temporarily stores in a prescribed storage medium the first image data representing the first image and the second image data representing the second image and extracts a characteristic region from the second image which can be superposed on part of the first image, said program allowing a computer to realize

• an edge pixel detecting function to detect the edge pixels of the image according to the first image data and the second image data stored in the storage medium,
• a characteristic point extracting function to extract the characteristic point in the first image and the characteristic point in the second image when a pattern formed by the detected edge pixels and their neighboring pixels is similar to a prescribed object to be extracted,
• an arrangement pattern data creating function to create the arrangement pattern data which indicates the arrangement pattern based on the extracted characteristic point in the first image, and
• a characteristic region defining function to reference the thus created arrangement pattern data and define as the characteristic region the region in which the characteristic point in the second image approximately coincides with the arrangement pattern.