Video editing apparatus, method and program for the same

A video image editing method for obtaining a wraparound video image by switching, with use of a video image editing device, video images captured by N photographing devices where N is an integer of 3 or larger, the photographing devices being arranged so as to surround a subject, the video images being switched along sequence of the photographing devices, the wraparound video image being a video image as if it was captured by photographing devices going around the subject, the video image editing method comprising:

• a label application step of, by the video image editing device, applying a label indicating a photographing device and a label indicating time to each of images obtained from the N photographing devices;
• a position and size extraction step of, by the video image editing device, extracting a combination of information about a position and information about a size of the subject existing in an image to which the labels are applied;
• a position and size determination step of, by the video image editing device, generating a polynomial expression regarding the position of the subject and a polynomial expression regarding the size of the subject, based on information about positions and sizes of the N subjects, performing correction or interpolation of the positions of the N subjects by a polynomial approximation curve using the polynomial expression regarding the position of the subject, performing correction or interpolation of the sizes of the N subjects by a polynomial approximation curve using the polynomial expression regarding the size of the subject, and expanding or contracting the sizes of the N subjects using an expansion/contraction parameter p;
• an image cutout step of, by the video image editing device, cutting out, from the N images to which the labels are applied, a cutout range based on the positions and the sizes of the N subjects that were corrected or interpolated and expanded or contracted;
• an image size adjustment step of, by the video image editing device, converting the sizes of the N images that are cut out, into a same size;
• and
• a video image editing step of, by the video image editing device, generating an intermediate image from two images of the same size corresponding to the photographing devices adjacent to each other and generating a wraparound video image, with a parameter indicating a length of the wraparound video image being represented by Tp.