Patent ID: 7110592

Claim:
An image recording apparatus for constructing a virtual space capable of walkthrough using photographed image data, said apparatus comprising: a map information storing unit adapted to store map data; an image data storing unit adapted to store image data photographed by using a plurality of photographing apparatuses and to store position measurement by GPS to the respective frames of the image data; an association data storing unit adapted to store association data, the association data associating a frame stored in said image data storing unit with a segment point set on a map represented by the map data, and associating frames that are between two frames respectively associated with two segment points with a section defined by the two segment points; a map display unit adapted to display a map image based on said map data and display the position measurement; and a generating unit adapted to generate the association data, wherein said generating unit includes: a setting unit adapted to set the segment points by specifying desired positions on said displayed map image; a first associating unit adapted to automatically associate a frame stored in said image data storing unit with the segment point set by said setting unit based on the position measurement; a second associating unit adapted to associate a frame stored in said image data storing unit with the segment point based on a manual instruction; and a section associating unit adapted to associate frames, which are between two frames respectively associated with two segment points by said first or said second associating unit, with a section defined by the two segment points.