US Patent 9036917 Image recognition based on patterns of local regions

An image is obtained. At least one local region is set in the image. Feature patterns are extracted from the local region, and, out of a plurality of bins corresponding to a plurality of patterns which can form the feature patterns, bins that have been determined in accordance with a type of the local region are set as histogram bins used in generating a histogram. A histogram is generated corresponding to the extracted feature patterns using the set histogram bins, and image recognition is performed using the generated histogram.