In image processing method and apparatus of the present invention, image
distortions caused by oblique imaging are corrected. A feature point of
one of a plurality of partially overlapping images corresponding to a
common location of an original image, shared by the plurality of
partially overlapping images, is determined. A matched point of one of
the other partially overlapping images corresponding to the feature point
is determined so that a direction of the object plane is calculated based
on the feature point and the matched point. One of the plurality of
partially overlapping images is selected as a standard image whose image
distortions are to be corrected. A distortion-corrected image is
generated on a projection plane by projecting the standard image onto the
projection plane based on the direction of the object plane such that
image distortions in the standard image are eliminated.