PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a mechanism capable of performing suitable diagnosis of an eye to be examined while reducing the load of image processing.SOLUTION: The mechanism has an imaging step for imaging the eyeground of the eye to be examined to acquire a colored eyeground image represented by RGB (S101), and a generation step for performing image processing for reducing at least an R component among RGB components of the colored eyeground image to generate a blood vessel emphasized image (Digital Red-Free image) obtained by emphasizing blood vessels in the eyeground of the eye to be examined (S105) in the case that density difference based on luminance of a partial area in the colored eyeground image is equal to or less than a prescribed value (S104/Yes).COPYRIGHT: (C)2014,JPO&INPIT【課題】画像処理の負荷の軽減を図りつつ、被検眼の好適な診断を行える仕組みを提供する。【解決手段】被検眼の眼底を撮像して、RGBで表現されるカラー眼底画像を取得する撮像ステップ(S101)と、カラー眼底画像における一部の領域の輝度に基づく濃度差が所定値以下である場合(S104/Yes)に、カラー眼底画像のRGB成分のうちの少なくともR成分を低減させる画像処理を行って、被検眼の眼底における血管を強調した血管強調画像(Digital Red-Free画像)を生成する生成ステップ(S105)とを有する。【選択図】図2
