Pedestrian detecting device, method and computer program product

A pedestrian detecting device for a vehicle comprises a far-infrared camera 1 picking up a far-infrared image outside the vehicle, an area-candidate extracting portion 61 of a CPU 6 that extracts an area candidate containing a pedestrian image from the far-infrared image picked up, an environment detecting device 3 detecting an environment outside the vehicle that influences the far-infrared image, a ROM 4 storing a pedestrian model in the far-infrared image in association with the environment outside the vehicle, a pedestrian-model extracting portion 62 extracting a pedestrian model associated with the environment that is detected by the environment detecting device 3 from the ROM 4, and a pedestrian determining portion 63 determining, for a pedestrian detection, whether or not the area candidate contains the pedestrian image, by comparing the area candidate extracted to the pedestrian model extracted. Accordingly, the detection accuracy of the pedestrian can be improved.