A vehicle surroundings monitoring apparatus, includes: an infrared imaging
device that captures an image; a binarized object extraction device that
extracts a binarized object by binarizing the image; an extraction region
setting device that sets, as an extraction region, a region adjacent to
one of an upper end and a lower end of the binarized object extracted by
the binarized object extraction device; a search region setting device
that sets a search region around the extraction region; a similar object
extraction device that, when an object having a shape similar to that of
the object in the extraction region is present in the search region,
extracts the object in the search region as a similar object; and an
identical object determination device that determines whether or not the
object in the extraction region and the similar object in the search
region are identical.