Digital still camera having image feature analyzing function

A digital still camera comprising:

• shooting unit arranged to shoot a shooting-target image;
• feature extraction unit arranged to extract a feature of the image shot by said shooting unit;
• and
• recording control unit arranged to add feature extraction data representing the feature extracted by said feature extraction unit to the shot image as meta data, and store the obtained data on a recording medium,
• wherein said feature extraction unit extracts a histogram of the shot image or an average color difference amount of pixels having a same brightness value.

A control method for a digital still camera, comprising:

• a shooting step arranged to shoot a shooting-target image;
• a feature extraction step arranged to extract a feature of the image shot in said shooting step;
• a recording step arranged to store the shot image on a recording medium;
• and
• a transfer step arranged to transfer feature extraction data representing the feature extracted in said feature extraction step to a printer connected to the digital still camera.

A control method for a print system which includes a digital still camera and a printer, wherein

• in regard to the digital still camera, said method comprising:
• a shooting step arranged to shoot a shooting-target image;
• a feature extraction step arranged to extract a feature of the image shot in said shooting step;
• a recording step arranged to store the shot image on a recording medium;
• and
• a transfer step arranged to transfer feature extraction data representing the feature extracted in said feature extraction step and the print-target image to the printer connected to the digital still camera, and
• in regard to the printer, said method comprising:
• a reception step arranged to receive the print-target image and its feature extraction data from the digital still camera;
• a correction step arranged to perform a correction process to the received image on the basis of the received feature extraction data;
• and
• a print step arranged to perform printing on a recording paper on the basis of the image corrected in said correction step.

A print control method comprising:

• an image reading step arranged to read a print-target image from a recording medium;
• a feature extraction step arranged to extract a feature of the image read in said image reading step;
• a recording step arranged to associate feature extraction data, representing the feature extracted in said feature extraction step, with the read image, and store the obtained feature extraction data on the recording medium;
• and
• a transfer step arranged to transfer the feature extraction data and the print-target image stored on the recording medium to a printer.

An image processing apparatus comprising:

• input means for inputting an image file in which histogram information concerning at least one of brightness, hue, saturation and density representing a feature of an image or color difference information has been added to image data representing the image;
• extraction means for extracting the histogram information or the color difference information from the image file input by said input means;
• and
• correction means for correcting the image data by using the histogram information or the color difference information extracted by said extraction means.