1. An image processing apparatus comprising: a camera interface section that is connected to an imaging section, the imaging section taking an image of an object to be measured to produce image data, the image data produced by the imaging section being inputted to the camera interface section; a plurality of arithmetic processing sections that process the image data; a display screen output section that is connected to a display section to output display image data to be displayed on the display section; an input section that accepts input from an outside; a storage section for storing a plurality of processing units used to process the image data; a processing registration section that registers a processing procedure, the processing procedure including a combination of the processing units selected by the input from the input section; a mode selection section that selectably displays a plurality of parallel processing modes indicating kinds of parallel processing on the display section and accepts the selection of the parallel processing mode from the input section; and a parallelization section that allocates each of a plurality of processing units included in the target processing procedure to one of the plurality of arithmetic processing sections according to the parallel processing mode selected by the mode selection section.