IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD, IMAGE PROCESSING PROGRAM, IMAGE CAPTURING APPARATUS, AND CONTROLLING METHOD THEREOF

An image processing apparatus includes an image converting section, a scanning controlling section, an image memory, and an object detection processing section. The image converting section converts a size of input image data. The scanning controlling section stores the size-converted image data, performs a scanning process of moving a square region having a predetermined size in the size-converted image data, and successively extracts square region image data. The image memory stores the square region image data which have been extracted by the scanning controlling section. The object detection processing section which detects an object region from the extracted square region image data. The image memory stores a plurality of entries of object candidate image data containing object regions of a plurality of object candidates. The object detection processing section performs an object determining process of determining whether or not the square region image data contain an object region.