Olympus E-PL9 has a 16.0MP Four Thirds (17.3 x 13 mm ) sized CMOS sensor and features TruePic VIII processor. On the other hand, Canon R10 has a 24.0MP APS-C (22.2 x 14.8 mm ) sized CMOS sensor and features Digic X processor.
Canon R10's sensor provides 8MP more than Olympus E-PL9's sensor, which gives a significant advantage in real life. You can print your images larger or crop more freely.
On the other hand, please keep in mind that Max sensor resolution is not the only determinant of resolving power. Factors such as the optical elements, low pass filter, pixel size and sensor technology also affects the final resolution of the captured image.
Below you can see the E-PL9 and R10 sensor size comparison.
![Olympus E-PL9 vs Canon R10 Sensor Size Comparison]()
Sensor Size and Resolution Comparison image of Olympus E-PL9 and Canon R10 Cameras
As seen above, Canon R10 has a 1.5x Larger sensor area than Olympus E-PL9. Larger sensors give photographer more control on the depth of field and blurry background compared to smaller sensor when shot in same focal length and aperture.