US Patent 8379108 Electronic camera that detects and extracts faces

An electronic camera including an imaging device photoelectrically converting a formed image of a subject to generate an image signal, a manipulation section accepting an input instructing a release, a face detecting section detecting a face area in a shooting image plane based on the image signal during a standby period for the release, a controlling section photographing the subject in response to the release to generate shooting image data from the image signal, a face recognizing data generating section which extracts a feature point of a person's face corresponding to the face area based on the image signal and generates face recognizing data of the photographed person based on the feature point when the release takes place while the face area is detected, and a recording section recording the face recognizing data.