Image Processing Apparatus And Image Sensing Apparatus

Abstract

A tracking process portion includes a search area setting portion for setting a search area in the input image, an image analysis portion for analyzing an image in the search area, an auxiliary track value setting portion for setting an auxiliary track value based on a result of the analysis, a track value setting portion for setting an auxiliary track value based on a result of the analysis and deciding whether the set track value is correct or not, and a track target detection portion for detecting a track object from the image in the search area based on the track value. If the set track value is incorrect, the track value setting portion performs a switching operation for setting the auxiliary track value and a track value.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . An image processing apparatus comprising:
 a track value setting portion which sets a track value which is a signal value indicating a track object in an input image;   an auxiliary track value setting portion which sets an auxiliary track value which indicates the track object and is a signal value different from the track value; and   a track target detection portion which detects a pixel having the track value from the input image, wherein   the track value setting portion is capable of performing a switching operation of setting the auxiliary track value as a new track value instead of the set track value.   
     
     
         2 . An image processing apparatus according to  claim 1 , further comprising:
 a search area setting portion which sets a search area in the input image; and   an image analysis portion which determines a frequency distribution of a pixel signal value in the search area, wherein   the auxiliary track value setting portion sets the auxiliary track value based on the frequency distribution,   the track value setting portion decides whether the track value is correct or not based on the frequency distribution and performs the switching operation if it is decided that the set track value is incorrect, and   the track target detection portion detects a pixel having the track value from the image in the search area.   
     
     
         3 . An image processing apparatus according to  claim 2 , wherein the auxiliary track value setting portion sets a signal value having a higher frequency in the frequency distribution with higher priority as the auxiliary track value. 
     
     
         4 . An image processing apparatus according to  claim 2 , wherein the input image is supplied to the image processing apparatus sequentially, so that the image analysis portion outputs the frequency distribution sequentially, and the auxiliary track value setting portion sets a signal value having a frequency above a predetermined threshold value a predetermined times successively with respect to the frequency distribution output sequentially as the auxiliary track value. 
     
     
         5 . An image processing apparatus according to  claim 2 , wherein the auxiliary track value setting portion sets the auxiliary track value by excluding a signal value indicating a background of the input image. 
     
     
         6 . An image sensing apparatus comprising:
 an image sensing portion which generates an input image by image sensing; and   an image processing apparatus according to  claim 1 , wherein   the image sensing apparatus performs control based on a result of the detection of the track object by the image processing apparatus.