Matsushita Electric Works, Ltd.

Nobuaki Kadowaki

Kazutaka Ikeda

Akira Yabuta

Jun Nishijima

Peter Fung

An image processing method and apparatus for detecting pattern matching between an input mage and a template image at high speed by reducing memory access times. The image processing apparatus includes a first memory for storing a reference pattern as a template, a second memory for storing an input image for which pattern matching with the template is to be detected, means for compressing the template from the first memory and the input image from the second memory by a predetermined compression ratio, a compressed data memory for storing the compressed input image and the compressed template from the compressing means, a main processor for computing inter-correlation between the compressed input image and the compressed template by scanning the compressed input image for each sub-block thereof and determining a location of the compressed input mage showing a best match in a current pattern matching mode. The current pattern matching mode is one of several matching modes with different degrees of compression ratio involved in the compression means and the inter-correlation is determined through two or more pattern matching modes in the order from higher compression ratio to lower compression ratio.

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Osaka, Japan

Nobuaki Kadowaki