ILLUMINATION CHROMATICITY ESTIMATING/CONVERTING DEVICE WITH RECOGNIZED LIGHT SOURCE AND HIGHLIGHT USED, ITS METHOD, AND COMPUTER-READABLE RECORDING MEDIUM WITH PROGRAM RECORDED FOR IT

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an illumination chromaticity estimating/converting device and its method with high precision by considering characteristics of a highlight on the basis of a comparatively stable illumination chromaticity estimated from a recognized light source. SOLUTION: An illumination chromaticity estimating device is provided with a picture inputting unit 40 inputting a color picture, a highlight detection unit 41 extracting a highlight area from the inputted color picture, a highlight variable calculation unit 42 projecting the respective highlight areas to chromaticity coordinates so as to find a geometric representation variable for a pattern distributed on the chromaticity coordinates, a recognized light source illumination chromaticity estimation unit estimating illumination chromaticity for the inputted color picture according to a recognized light source estimation method, and a corrective chromaticity calculation unit 44 selecting a predetermined number of geometric representation variables positioned around the illumination chromaticity estimated by the above recognized light source illumination chromaticity estimation unit from the geometric representation variables and using the selected geometric representation variables for finding final illumination chromaticity.