PURPOSE: To accurately detect only the area where a moving object exists in a prescribed frame.

CONSTITUTION: The final moving object detection result is obtained by a frame memory 103 where the one-frame portion of an input picture 1a is stored, a first motion detecting circuit 104 which detects the moving object from the input picture 1a and the output signal or the frame memory 103, a coefficient generating circuit 110 which determines a multiplication coefficient in accordance with the absolute value output of the difference between the input picture 1a and the background, a first multiplier 11a which multiplies the input picture by the multiplication coefficient, a second multiplier 111b which multiplies the background picture by the multiplication coefficient, an adder 112 which adds the outputs of two multipliers, a background memory 107 where the output of the adder 112 is stored, a second motion detecting circuit 120 which detects the moving object from the input picture and the output signal of the background memory 107, an AND operation circuit 105 which operates AND between the output signal of the first motion detecting circuit 104 and that of the second motion detecting circuit 120, and a connection processing circuit 106 which connects the moving object area with respect to the output signal of the AND operation circuit 105.