Patent ID: 8184177

Claim:
A white balance control apparatus which computes white balance correction coefficients to be applied to a sensed image, comprising: a face detection unit which detects a face region from the image; a first coefficient computing unit which computes a first white balance correction coefficient for the entire image; a second coefficient computing unit which divide the image obtained after applying the first white balance correction coefficient into a plurality of blocks, computing a color degree by integrating a pixel value of a block falling within the face region among the plurality of blocks, and computing a second white balance correction coefficient by comparing the color degree with a skin color; a determination unit which determines a weight of the second white balance correction coefficient in accordance with a statistical value of luminance values of achromatic pixels included in the face region and shape information about a histogram of luminance values of color pixels included in the face region; and a computing unit which computes a resultant white balance correction coefficient for an image in accordance with the first white balance correction coefficient and the second white balance correction coefficient weighted by the determined weight, wherein said determination unit determines the weight, in accordance with both the statistical value of the luminance values of the achromatic pixels included in the face region and the shape information about the histogram of the luminance values of the color pixels included in the face region, so that the weight is smaller as a degree at which the detected face region is not a human face is higher.