Patent ID: 7716200

Claim:
An image management apparatus storing a primary image and a reduced image corresponding to the primary image, comprising: a first recording medium for recording the primary image when the primary image is input; a first database makeup unit for making up first database information for identifying a group to which the reduced image belongs when recording the primary image in the first recording medium; a second recording medium for recording the reduced image and first database information; a duplication unit for duplicating first database information and the reduced image recorded in the second recording medium into the first recording medium when the remainder capacity of, or the number of recorded files in, the second recording medium meets a predetermined condition; a second database makeup unit for deleting first database information and the reduced image which are duplicated into the first recording medium from the second recording medium and also making up second database information for identifying the duplicated first database information in the second recording medium; a first search unit for searching for a presence of the first database information in the second recording medium when a replay instruction for an image is provided by a user; a second search unit for searching a presence of the second database information made up in the second recording medium when the presence of the first database information in the second recording medium was not detected by the first search unit; wherein when a presence of the second database information is detected by the second search unit the first database information duplicated into the first recording medium is searched based on the second database information, and the reduced image to which the replay instruction is provided by the user is searched based on the first database information, thereby quickly searching the reduced image to which the replay instruction is provided by the user from the second recording medium based on the first database information when the first database information is present in the second recording medium, and searching a desired reduced image from among the images recorded in the first recording medium when the first database information is not present in the second recording medium.