Patent ID: 7289236
Filing Date: 2007-10-30
Classification: H04N

Abstract:
1. An image management apparatus which prerecords a first image and is capable of obtaining a second image from a communication apparatus through a first communication link or from a first recording medium and outputting the second image to another communication apparatus through a second communication link or to a second recording medium, the image management apparatus comprising: a recording device which associates and prerecords the first image with an identification of the image and an image property of the image, the image property including information on a number of pixels, a compression rate of the image, information indicating whether the image is compressed or not, an amount related to image quality, information on proximity to original image data, an amount of data available at receiving device, or an amount of information contained in the image after RGB or YCC sampling is applied to the image; an obtaining device for obtaining the second image and the identification and the image property of the second image from the communication apparatus through the first communication link or the first recording medium; a comparison device which reads the image property of the prerecorded image recorded in the recording device based on a same identification of the second image obtained by the obtaining device to compare the read image property with the obtained property; and an output device which outputs the obtained second image to another communication apparatus through the second communication link or to the second recording medium if it is determined as a result of the comparison by the comparison device that the obtained second image property indicates a larger number of pixels, a lower compression rate, a non-compressed image, or a larger amount of sampled information.