Display image generating method

1. An image processing apparatus comprising:

an input terminal that receives a plurality of image units that are temporally or spatially continuous;

an image processing unit that performs image processing on the plurality of image units by iteratively performing the image processing on subsets of the plurality of image units; and

a display image generating unit that controls a display to

display the plurality of image units when the image processing unit begins performing the image processing on the plurality of image units;

display, at a time of a completion of intermediate processing of a subset of the plurality of image units by the image processing unit, an intermediate processed image including the processed subset of the plurality of image units; and

display, after completion of the processing of the plurality of image units by the image processing unit, a complete processed image including the processed plurality of image units, wherein

the processing performed by the image processing unit on the plurality of image units includes

extracting two similar image units having a minimum integral sum of absolute difference value from the plurality of image units, and a plurality of temporally continuous image units between the two similar image units;

taking a temporally previous image unit of the two similar image units as a first image unit, taking a temporally subsequent image unit as a rear-most image unit, and connecting the first image unit and rear-most image unit; and

generating a loop image made up of the first image unit and rear-most image unit, and a plurality of temporally continuous image units between the first image unit and the rear-most image unit as a processed subset of the plurality of image units.

2. The image processing apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising:

a first image memory unit that stores the plurality of image units output from the input terminal.

3. The image processing apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processing performed by the image processing unit on the plurality of image units comprises:

extracting two similar small images and a plurality of temporally continuous small images between the two small images from small images clipped from the plurality of image units, or small images reduced from the plurality of image units;

taking a temporally previous small image of the two similar small images as a first small image, taking a temporally subsequent small image as a rear-most small image, and connecting the first small image and rear-most small image; and

generating a loop image made up of the first small image and rear-most small image, and a plurality of temporally continuous small images between the first small image and rear-most small image as a processed subset of the plurality of image units.

4. The image processing apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processing performed by the image processing unit on the plurality of image units comprises:

extracting a subset of the plurality of image units that continue for a certain period from the plurality of the image units;

connecting a first image unit and a temporally rear-most image unit of the subset of the plurality of image units that continue for the certain period; and

generating a loop image made up of the first image unit and rear-most image unit, and a plurality of image units that temporally continue between the first image unit and the rear-most image unit as a processed subset of the plurality of image units.

5. The image processing apparatus of claim 1 , wherein connecting the first image unit and the rear-most image unit includes performing a blending process on the first image unit and the rear-most image unit.

6. The image processing apparatus of claim 1 , wherein extracting the two similar image units includes calculating a sum of absolute difference values of each of the plurality of image units and integrating the calculated sum of absolute difference values with a weight to obtain an integral sum of absolute difference value.

7. The image processing apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processing performed by the image processing unit on the plurality of image units comprises:

successively performing a process for extracting a subset of the plurality of image units for each predetermined time interval from the plurality of image units while changing the predetermined time interval;

extracting two similar image units and a plurality of temporally continuous image units between the two similar image units from the subset of the plurality of image units for each of the extracting processes;

taking a temporally previous image unit of the two similar image units as a first image unit, taking a temporally subsequent image unit as a rear-most image unit, and connecting the first image unit and the rear-most image unit; and

generating a loop image made up of the first image unit and rear-most image unit, and a plurality of temporally continuous image units between the first image unit and the rear- most image unit as a processed subset of the plurality of image units.

8. The information processing apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the predetermined time interval is successively reduced for each iterative processing of the subsets of the plurality of image units, and at a time that the processing of the plurality of image units is completed by the image processing unit, matches a time interval when input terminal receives the plurality of image units.

9. The image processing apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processing performed by the image processing unit on the plurality of image units comprises:

extracting an image portion in a temporally and spatially overlapped range from each of the plurality of image units;

connecting a temporally previous image portion and a temporally subsequent image portion of the image portions in the temporally and spatially overlapped range; and

generating a loop image made up of the temporally previous image portion, temporally subsequent image portion, and the image portions that temporally and spatially continue between the temporally previous image portion and the temporally subsequent image portion as a processed subset of the plurality of image units.

10. The information processing apparatus of claim 9 , further comprising:

generating images connected by overlapping each of the spatially continuous images with a spatially overlapped image portion, as the processed subset of the plurality of image units.

11. The information processing apparatus of claim 9 , further comprising:

generating an image with which each of the temporally and/or spatially continuous images is overlapped, as the processed subset of the plurality of image units.

12. The image processing apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising:

a first image memory unit that stores the plurality of image data units output from the input terminal.

13. The image processing apparatus of claim 12 , further comprising:

a second image memory unit that stores the processed plurality of image units output by the image processing unit.

14. The image processing apparatus of claim 13 , further comprising:

a control unit that controls the first image memory unit, the image processing unit, the second memory unit and the display image generating unit.

15. The image processing apparatus of claim 14 , wherein the image processing unit, upon iteratively completing the image processing for each subset of the plurality of image units, outputs each processed subset of the plurality of image units to the second image memory unit.

16. The image processing apparatus of claim 15 , wherein the image processing unit, upon iteratively completing the image processing for each subset of the plurality of image units, outputs a signal indicating completion of the image processing for each processed subset of the plurality of image units to the second image memory unit.

17. The image processing apparatus of claim 15 , wherein the control unit controls the display image generating unit to acquire the plurality of image units from the first image memory unit for display when the processing of the image units for display has not been completed by the image processing unit.

18. The image processing apparatus of claim 15 , wherein the control unit controls the display image generating unit to acquire the processed subset of the plurality of image units from the second image memory unit for display when the processing of the image units for display has been completed by the image processing unit.

19. An image display method performed by an information processing apparatus, the method comprising:

receiving, at an input terminal of the information processing apparatus, a plurality of image units that are temporally or spatially continuous;

performing image processing on the plurality of image units by iteratively performing the image processing on subsets of the plurality of image units;

displaying, by a display of the information processing apparatus, the plurality of image units upon beginning the image processing on the plurality of image units;

displaying, by the display, at a time of a completion of intermediate processing of a subset of the plurality of image units, an intermediate processed image including the processed subset of the plurality of image units; and

displaying, by the display, after completion of the image processing of the plurality of image units, a complete processed image including the processed plurality of image units, wherein

the processing performed on the plurality of image units includes

extracting two similar image units having a minimum integral sum of absolute difference value from the plurality of image units, and a plurality of temporally continuous image units between the two similar image units;

taking a temporally previous image unit of the two similar image units as a first image unit, taking a temporally subsequent image unit as a rear-most image unit, and connecting the first image unit and rear-most image unit; and

generating a loop image made up of the first image unit and rear-most image unit, and a plurality of temporally continuous image units between the first image unit and the rear-most image unit as a processed subset of the plurality of image units.

20. A non-transitory computer-readable medium including computer program instructions, which when executed by an information processing apparatus, cause the information processing apparatus to perform a method comprising:

receiving a plurality of image units that are temporally or spatially continuous;

performing image processing on the plurality of image units by iteratively performing the image processing on subsets of the plurality of image units;

displaying the plurality of image units upon beginning the image processing on the plurality of image units;

displaying, at a time of a completion of intermediate processing of a subset of the plurality of image units, an intermediate processed image including the processed subset of the plurality of image units; and

displaying, after completion of the image processing of the plurality of image units, a complete processed image including the processed plurality of image units, wherein

the processing performed on the plurality of image units includes

extracting two similar image units having a minimum integral sum of absolute difference value from the plurality of image units, and a plurality of temporally continuous image units between the two similar image units;

taking a temporally previous image unit of the two similar image units as a first image unit, taking a temporally subsequent image unit as a rear-most image unit, and connecting the first image unit and rear-most image unit; and

generating a loop image made up of the first image unit and rear-most image unit, and a plurality of temporally continuous image units between the first image unit and the rear-most image unit as a processed subset of the plurality of image units.