Image recognition apparatus

An image recognition apparatus comprising:

• a processor;
• an objective image data acquisition unit to acquire objective image data containing a face image portion;
• a feature area detection unit to detect eye areas corresponding to left and right eyes contained in the objective image data;
• an inclination estimation unit to estimate inclination of the face image portion in a depth direction thereof based on the relative position of the detected eye areas;
• an area-to-be-extracted determination unit to determine a shape of an area to be extracted based on the inclination estimated by the inclination estimation unit;
• and
• an area-to-be-extracted extraction unit to extract the area to be extracted of the shape determined from the objective image data, wherein
• the area-to-be-extracted determination unit determines the shape of the area to be extracted in response to the inclination so that a width of the area to be extracted is smaller than a width of an area to be extracted in the case where the face image portion faces a front, and
• the area to be extracted is subjected to predetermined processing via the processor.