SEGMENT CONTIGUITY RELATION DETERMINING METHOD

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To shorten the time needed to estimate a segment more by effectively determining the contiguity relation between segments extracted from scanned video and storing the contiguity relation information in a memory. SOLUTION: A division part 20 extracts a pattern primitive like a segment by using segmenting and outline extracting algorithm. The extracted outline that the pattern primitive represents is mapped to, for example, an X-Y plane and converted into vector data. Then the segment data approximated to a segment is supplied to a segment estimation part 30. This estimation part 30 determines contiguity relation between segments along an X or Y axis for the selected segment and information on the determined contiguity relation is stored in a memory in the estimation part 30. Then this contiguity relation information is supplied to a body recognition part 50, which performs pattern classification according to retrieved syntax and its own pattern syntax rule to output a final pattern recognition result.