Patent attributes
It is desirable to distribute a most recently inputted image of merchandise in a shop without showing customers visiting a shop, or to distribute an image showing how crowded a shop is without infringing on the privacy of visitors to the ship. This is achieved by separating areas showing moving objects and areas showing no moving objects of an image and synthesizing an image showing stationary objects only by replacing the moving object area with the corresponding area of an earlier inputted image showing stationary objects only, or by processing the moving object area of an image, for example, by applying a mosaic to such an area, and synthesizing the synthesized image showing stationary objects only. The image in which the moving object area has been processed enables the distribution of an image showing how crowded a shop is without infringing on the privacy of visitors.
