A color image inpainting method includes: obtaining a color image of an object to be recognized, the color image including a missing portion where at least part of image information is missing; obtaining an infrared image of the object; identifying the missing portion in the color image; and inpainting the missing portion in the color image identified in the identifying. The inpainting includes inpainting the missing portion by using information which is obtained from the infrared image and corresponds to the missing portion to obtain an inpainted color image of the object.