Image measurement apparatus for creating a panoramic image

An image measurement apparatus comprising:

• a measurement processing block for obtaining a plurality of first images of an object to be measured, taken while micro-movements, which do not match pixels and shift, are being made in an imaging area;
• a feature extraction processing block for extracting an approximate feature portion of the object from the plurality of first images obtained by the measurement processing block;
• a partial-image creation processing block for creating a plurality of first partial images by grouping the plurality of first images obtained by the measurement processing block in the vicinity of the approximate feature portion extracted by the feature extraction processing block;
• and
• a super-resolution-image creation processing block for creating a super-resolution image from the plurality of first partial images created by the partial-image creation processing block;
• a distance-angle measurement block for measuring the distance to and the angle of a point contained in the first image;
• an orthoimage creation block for creating an orthoimage from individual points in the first image, in accordance with the distance measured by the distance-angle measurement block and the position of the first image;
• wherein the feature extraction processing block extracts a detailed feature portion from the super-resolution image, and
• the super-resolution-image creation processing block aligns the plurality of first partial images taken while the micro-movements are being made in the imaging area, in accordance with the approximate feature portion, and combines the images to form a super-resolution image containing the detailed feature portion, thereby the super-resolution-image creation processing block estimates a high-resolution image from a plurality of images or restores an original high-resolution image from a plurality of degraded images and magnifies the image.