IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD AND DEVICE, IMAGE RETRIEVAL METHOD AND DEVICE, IMAGE PROCESSING PROGRAM, STORAGE MEDIUM FOR THE PROGRAM, IMAGE RETRIEVAL PROGRAM, AND STORAGE MEDIUM FOR THE PROGRAM

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To extract color information resistant to stray value or color shift as characteristic quantity of an image; to precisely and easily take out a necessary image part by use of the color information; and to precisely retrieve an image by use of the image part. SOLUTION: A color for minimizing the difference in color with majority of pixels is extracted from the image to be processed as typical color. Each pixel constituting the image to be processed is classified according to the typical color, and the image to be processed is regionalized according to the classification. The image to be processed is divided, the typical color is extracted every divided image part, each pixel constituting the image to be processed is classified according to the typical color, the image to be processed is regionalized according to the classification, and the regions having the similar typical color are integrated, whereby the necessary image part is taken out from the image to be processed. The similarities of images are compared by use of the typical color, whereby a retrieval of image is performed.