The present invention enables processing results which are more accurate and which have higher precision as to events of the real world to be obtained. A non-continuity component extracting unit 201 detects discontinuity portions of pixel values of multiple pixels in an input image. A peak detecting unit 202 detects a peak of change of pixel values from a discontinuity portion. A monotonous increase/decrease detecting unit 203 detects monotonous increase/decrease regions wherein pixel values increase or decrease monotonously from the peak. A continuousness detecting unit 204 detects a monotonous increase/decrease region where another monotonous increase/decrease region of the monotonous increase/decrease regions exists at an adjacent position on the screen, as a continuity region having data continuity. A data continuity direction detecting unit 301 detects the direction of continuousness of the continuity region. An actual world estimating unit estimates real world lights signals by estimating the continuity of the real world light signals, based on the continuity region and the direction of the continuousness of the continuity region. The present invention can be applied to an image processing device for generating images with high resolution.