Electronic still camera for capturing and categorizing images

An electronic camera for capturing images representing a variety of subjects, said camera comprising:

• an image sensor for capturing a particular image;
• a converter stage for converting the particular image into digital image data;
• a signal port for receiving at least one externally generated category providing classification of the image by subject;
• a memory for storing each category provided by the signal port;
• a processor having the capability of assigning said at least one category stored in the memory to the images captured by the camera, each category providing subject classification of one or more images;
• a user control for selecting a particular category for the selected image;
• and
• means for generating an output image signal comprising an image file including both the digital image data corresponding to the particular image and separate category data including the particular category selected by the user control, wherein the category data is separately accessible for each image apart from the image data.

An electronic camera for capturing images representing a variety of subjects, said camera comprising:

• an image sensor for capturing the images;
• a converter stage for converting the images into digital image data;
• a memory for storing a plurality of categories providing classification of the images by subject;
• a processor having the capability of assigning the plurality of categories to the images captured by the image sensor, each category providing subject classification of one or more images;
• a user control for selecting one or more categories for the images before the images are captured by the image sensor;
• means for storing the digital image data in image files;
• and
• means for grouping the image files according to the plurality of categories.

A method using an electronic camera for capturing images representing a variety of subjects, said method comprising the steps of:

• storing a plurality of categories providing classification of the images by subject;
• assigning at least one of the plurality of categories to the images before the images are captured by the electronic camera, each category providing subject classification of one or more images;
• capturing the images with the electronic camera;
• converting the images into digital image data;
• and
• generating an output image signal comprising in image file including both the digital image data corresponding to the images and separate category data including the one or more categories selected by the user control, wherein the category data is separately accessible for each image apart from the image data.