FACE IMAGE DETECTION DEVICE, FACE IMAGE DETECTION METHOD AND IMAGING APPARATUS

An face image detection device capable of detecting the location of the face image with high accuracy without increasing time for detecting the location of the face image or electric consumption required for detecting the location of face image includes: a rotated reduced image data generation unit operable to generate n pieces of rotated reduced image data by reducing the input image data and rotating the reduced input image data by 360 ×i/n, where n is an integer equal to or larger than 2 and i ranges from 0 to n−1, each of the rotated reduced image data is rotated at intervals of 360/n degrees; and a face detection unit operable to detect the location of the face image from among the n pieces of rotated reduced image data.