Image-capture device, image-capture method, and image-capture program

1. An image-capture device comprising:

an image-capture section that captures an image of a subject;

a detector that detects a portion of the subject, the portion having a specific feature, from the image captured by the image-capture section;

an evaluator that determines a numerically expressed evaluation value of the specific feature of the portion detected by the detector;

a buffer section that temporarily stores delayed images corresponding to a predetermined amount of time; and

a recording-operation controller that controls the image-capture device to record image data including a predetermined delayed image in the buffer section, upon determining that the evaluation value satisfies a predetermined condition, in which the buffer section stores a number of evaluation values in a period of time so as to form an evaluation value history, and

in which the recording-operation controller determines a start image for recording in the buffer section based on the evaluation value history when the evaluation value is determined to satisfy the predetermined condition.

2. The image-capture device according to claim 1 , wherein the predetermined condition is that the evaluation value is greater than or equal to a first threshold.

3. The image-capture device according to claim 1 , wherein the predetermined condition is that a rate of increase in the evaluation value is greater than or equal to a predetermined threshold.

4. The image-capture device according claim 2 , wherein the start image for recording is at a point of time when the evaluation value history in the buffer section is greater than or equal to a second threshold value which is less than the first threshold value.

5. The image-capture device according to claim 1 , wherein the subject is a person and the evaluation value is a value obtained by evaluating a facial expression.

6. The image-capture device according to claim 2 , wherein after recording is started, the recording-operation controller controls the image-capture device to stop the recording when a certain amount of time passes after the evaluation value falls below the first threshold.

7. The image-capture device according to claim 1 , wherein the recording-operation controller controls the image-capture device to record the evaluation value corresponding to an image to be recorded, in conjunction with the image.

8. An image-capture method for an image-capture device, the method comprising the steps of:

capturing an image of a subject;

detecting a portion of the subject, the portion having a specific feature;

determining a numerically expressed evaluation value of the specific feature of the detected portion;

determining whether or not the evaluation value satisfies a predetermined condition;

storing a number of evaluation values in a period of time so as to form an evaluation value history;

determining a recording-start time; and

recording image data from the recording-start time,

in which the recording-start time is determined based on the evaluation value history when the evaluation value is determined to satisfy the predetermined condition.

9. A non-transitory computer readable memory having stored thereon an image-capture program for causing an image-capture device to execute the steps of:

capturing an image of a subject;

detecting a portion of the subject, the portion having a specific feature;

determining a numerically expressed evaluation value of the specific feature of the detected portion;

determining whether or not the evaluation value satisfies a predetermined condition;

storing a number of evaluation values in a period of time so as to form an evaluation value history;

determining a recording-start time; and

recording image data from the recording-start time,

in which the recording-start time is determined based on the evaluation value history when the evaluation value is determined to satisfy the predetermined condition.