IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS AND IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD

Disclosed is an image processing apparatus in which an image receiver receives a plurality of captured images, where image-captured ranges partially overlap, from an image-capturing device and stores the plurality of captured images in an input buffer, a composite region setter sets a composite region such that a portion projected in the vicinity of a polar point of a celestial sphere panoramic image is wider than a portion projected in the vicinity of an equator of the celestial sphere panoramic image, in an overlapping image-captured range of at least two captured images, an image composer performs composite processing on overlapping images in the composite region, connects the plurality of captured images, generates the celestial sphere panoramic image, and stores the generated image to an output buffer, and an image transmitter transmits the celestial sphere panoramic image to a display device.