Method for providing affective information in an imaging system

1. A method for storing and retrieving important digital images, comprising:

a) storing a plurality of digital images;

b) displaying the plurality of stored digital images for viewing by a particular user;

c) measuring the reaction of the particular user as each of the plurality of stored digital images is displayed;

d) determining, from the measured reaction of the particular user to each of the plurality of displayed images, a degree of importance for each of the plurality of stored digital images;

e) storing metadata indicating the degree of importance of each of the plurality of stored digital images to the particular user; and

f) using the stored degree of importance metadata to retrieve at least one stored digital image of importance to the particular user.

2. The method of claim 1 further includes the particular user providing a personal identifier.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the user identifier and the degree of importance metadata are stored with each of the digital images in a plurality of digital image files.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein each of the digital image files includes user identifiers and degree of importance metadata for a plurality of users.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the measuring the reaction of a particular user includes monitoring the physiology of the particular user.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the measuring the reaction of a particular user uses a video camera.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the measuring the reaction of a particular user includes determining the duration of time the particular user views each of the plurality of images.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the measuring the reaction of a particular user for the plurality of digital images includes monitoring the gaze of the particular user.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the degree of importance is selected from a determined degree of preference, degree of interest or degree of excitement or combinations thereof.