Image processing apparatus

1. An image processing apparatus comprising:

a first generation unit configured to generate a sample texture image holding a texture component of a transform target image;

a second generation unit configured to generate a texture image by searching for a similar pixel area to a processed pixel area near a processing target pixel in the texture image larger than the sample texture image from a neighboring area at a position corresponding to the processing target pixel in the sample texture image and assigning the processing target pixel a pixel value near the similar pixel area in accordance with a positional relationship between the processed pixel area and the processing target pixel; and

a combination unit configured to generate a combined image by combining the texture image with a base image which holds a non-texture component of the transform target image and has same size as that of the texture image,

wherein the second generation unit searches for the similar pixel area based on a first similarity between a pixel value in a pixel area in the neighboring area and a pixel value in the processed pixel area and a determination result indicating whether each pixel in the neighboring area expresses a same object as that expressed by the processing target pixel.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the second generation unit determines whether each pixel in the neighboring area expresses the same object as that expressed by the processing target pixel, by evaluating a second similarity between a reference pixel corresponding to the processing target pixel in a base skeleton image which is a non-texture component of the base image and has same size as that of the texture image and each pixel corresponding to the neighboring area in a sample skeleton image having the same size as that of the sample texture image.

3. The apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein the second generation unit calculates, as the second similarity, a distance between a pixel value of the reference pixel and a pixel value of each pixel corresponding to the neighboring area in the sample skeleton image.

4. The apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein the second generation unit excludes a pixel determined not to express the same object as that expressed by the processing target pixel from a search range for the similar pixel area.

5. The apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein the second generation unit searches for the similar pixel area based on a weighted sum of the first similarity and the second similarity.

6. The apparatus according to claim 2 , further comprising a third generation unit configured to generate the base skeleton image by separating a non-texture component from the base image.

7. The apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein the first generation unit generates the sample texture image and the sample skeleton image by separating a texture component and a non-texture component from the transform target image.

8. The apparatus according to claim 2 , further comprising a reduction unit configured to generate the sample skeleton image by performing reduction transformation of the base skeleton image.

9. The apparatus according to claim 2 , further comprising an enlargement unit configured to generate the base skeleton image by performing enlargement transformation of the sample skeleton image.

10. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the second generation unit determines whether each pixel in the neighboring area expresses the same object as that expressed by the processing target pixel, by evaluating a second similarity between a reference feature amount, of an image feature amount of each local area in the base image, which corresponds to the processing target pixel and each feature amount, of a image feature amount of each local area in the sample texture image, which corresponds to the neighboring area.