An image generating apparatus comprising: a panoramic image generating unit configured to generate a panoramic image by transforming each of eight divided areas obtained by dividing a surface of a sphere with three planes that pass through the center of the sphere and are orthogonal to each other, to a transformed area shaped as a right-angled isosceles triangle, said surface of the sphere having at least a partial area onto which a scene viewed from an observation point at the centre of the sphere is projected, such that the number of pixels belonging to a same-latitude pixel group made up of pixels corresponding to mutually equal latitudes is progressively reduced toward higher latitudes and a plurality of same-latitude pixel groups correspond to mutually equal latitude ranges, and placing the transformed area on a plane; and an image output unit configured to output the generated panoramic image; wherein said three planes are a horizontal plane, a vertical plane along a predetermined frontal direction which is a direction to be presented to a user as viewed from the observation point, and a vertical plane along a lateral direction which intersects the front direction; and wherein said panoramic image generating unit is configured to generate the panoramic image by placing the eight transformed areas, each being shaped as a right-angled isosceles triangle, in a square shape as a whole on the plane, such that a point on the sphere in the predetermined frontal direction is placed at the center of the square shape, a hemisphere structured by four of the divided areas around the point in the predetermined frontal direction is transformed to an inscribed square formed by connecting midpoints of the four sides of the square shape, characterized in that said panoramic image generating unit is configured to generate said panoramic image by adding a sampling pixel array for use in an interpolation process so as to be adjacent to a pixel array that makes up a side of the outer circumference of said panoramic image, wherein said sampling pixel array is a pixel array formed by inverting the layout of the pixel array that makes up said side. a panoramic image generating unit configured to generate a panoramic image by transforming each of eight divided areas obtained by dividing a surface of a sphere with three planes that pass through the center of the sphere and are orthogonal to each other, to a transformed area shaped as a right-angled isosceles triangle, said surface of the sphere having at least a partial area onto which a scene viewed from an observation point at the centre of the sphere is projected, such that the number of pixels belonging to a same-latitude pixel group made up of pixels corresponding to mutually equal latitudes is progressively reduced toward higher latitudes and a plurality of same-latitude pixel groups correspond to mutually equal latitude ranges, and placing the transformed area on a plane; and an image output unit configured to output the generated panoramic image; wherein said three planes are a horizontal plane, a vertical plane along a predetermined frontal direction which is a direction to be presented to a user as viewed from the observation point, and a vertical plane along a lateral direction which intersects the front direction; and wherein said panoramic image generating unit is configured to generate the panoramic image by placing the eight transformed areas, each being shaped as a right-angled isosceles triangle, in a square shape as a whole on the plane, such that a point on the sphere in the predetermined frontal direction is placed at the center of the square shape, a hemisphere structured by four of the divided areas around the point in the predetermined frontal direction is transformed to an inscribed square formed by connecting midpoints of the four sides of the square shape, characterized in that said panoramic image generating unit is configured to generate said panoramic image by adding a sampling pixel array for use in an interpolation process so as to be adjacent to a pixel array that makes up a side of the outer circumference of said panoramic image, wherein said sampling pixel array is a pixel array formed by inverting the layout of the pixel array that makes up said side.