Patent ID: 7515311

Claim:
An image synthesis apparatus for synthesizing a plurality of input images with each other to generate a first output image and a second output image, the image synthesis apparatus comprising: a synthesis order storage unit storing a synthesis order designating an order in which the input images are to be synthesized; a synthesis number storage unit storing a first synthesis number and a second synthesis number, the first synthesis number designating how many of the input images are to be synthesized to generate the first output image and the second synthesis number designating how many of the input images are to be synthesized to generate the second output image; an image obtaining unit obtaining the plurality of input images; a buffer storing a synthesized image that results from synthesis; a synthesizer successively performing processing to, in accordance with the synthesis order, synthesize an input image from among the obtained plurality of input images with the synthesized image stored by the buffer, thereby newly obtaining a synthesized image, and store the newly obtained synthesized image in the buffer; a counter that is connected to the synthesizer, the counter having an initial value of zero and counting up each time the buffer newly stores a synthesized image; and an output control unit controlling output of the synthesized image stored in the buffer, such that (a) when a value shown by the counter matches the first synthesis number, the first output image, which is the synthesized image stored in the buffer, is output to the external destination, and (b) when the value shown by the counter matches the second synthesis number, the second output image, which is the synthesized image stored in the buffer, is output to the external destination.