Patent ID: 8363122

Claim:
An image taking apparatus comprising: an imaging unit which produces image frames by taking consecutive images; a display configured to display one of the image frames produced by the imaging unit; a face detector configured to detect at least one face within the displayed image frame; a face coordinate acquirer configured to acquire face coordinates of the at least one detected face; a face detection state determiner configured to determine either a face-detected state or a face-undetected state in accordance with results of the face detection by the face detector, wherein the face-detected state includes one of: (i) a single face detection state in which a single face is detected within the displayed image frame, and (ii) a plural face detection state in which plural faces are detected within the displayed image frame; a first indicator display controller configured to control the display to display respective detected-face indicators based on a plurality of face coordinates acquired by the face coordinate acquirer when the face detection state determiner determines the plural face detection state; a second indicator display controller configured to control the display to display one detected-face indicator based on one face coordinate acquired by the face coordinate acquirer when the face detection state determiner determines the single face detection state; and a shooting controller configured to execute a shooting control based on the detected-face indicators displayed by the first indicator display controller and the second indicator display controller; wherein, in the plural face detection state, when any one of faces detected by the face detector is determined to change from the face-detected state to the face-undetected state while the respective detected-face indicators are displayed, the first indicator display controller controls the display to immediately hide the detected-face indicator of the face determined to change to the face-undetected state; and wherein, in the plural face detection state, when all of the faces detected by the face detector are determined to change from the face-detected state to the face-undetected state, the first indicator display controller controls the display to continuously display for a predetermined period of time at least one of the detected-face indicators of the faces determined to change to the face-undetected state which was most recently in the face-detected state.