IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD, AND COMPUTER PROGRAM

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image processing apparatus and an image processing method capable of accurately determining whether an inputted image includes a background element.SOLUTION: An image reader comprises: a thinning-out image generating part 101 for generating a thinned-out image which is obtained by thinning pixels from an inputted image; an edge pixel extraction part 102 for extracting edge pixels from the thinned-out image; an edge class extraction part 103 for extracting isolated edge pixels from the edge pixels; a histogram generation part 104 for generating an isolation histogram of the isolated edge pixels; and a determination part 105 for determining whether the inputted image includes a background element on the basis of the isolation histogram.