Image processing method, apparatus and storage medium therefor

An image processing apparatus for forming a mosaic image by combining a plurality of material images, comprising:

• dividing means for dividing an image, which is the basis of the mosaic image, into a plurality of areas;
• calculation means for calculating an average value of each of R, G, and B color components in each of the plurality of areas into which the image has been divided by said dividing means;
• mosaic image forming means for calculating differences between the average value of each of R, G, and B color components in each of the plurality of areas and an average value of R, G, and B color components in each of the material images, and selecting a material image having a minimum difference to respective ones of the areas, and pasting the selected material image so as to form a mosaic image;
• and
• filtering means for applying a pixel matrix having a size corresponding to the resolution of the mosaic image to connecting portions of the material images and performing a filtering process on the mosaic image formed by said mosaic image forming means, wherein the filtering process is independently performed on each of R, G, and B color components of the connecting portions of the material images.

A computer-readable storage medium storing a program which implements an image processing method for forming a mosaic by combining a plurality of material images, said program comprising:

• code for dividing an image, which is the basis of the mosaic image, into a plurality of areas;
• code for calculating an average value of each of R, G, and B color components in each of the divided plurality of areas into which the image has been divided in said dividing step;
• code for calculating differences between the average value of each of R, G, and B color components in each of the plurality of areas and an average value of R, G, and B color components in each of the material images, and selecting and pasting a material image having a minimum difference to respective ones of the areas so as to form the mosaic image;
• and
• code for applying a pixel matrix having size corresponding to the resolution of the mosaic image to connecting portions of the material images and performing a filtering process on the mosaic image, wherein the filtering process is independently performed on each of R, G, and B color components of the connecting portions of the material images.