Patent ID: 8169506

Claim:
An image storage apparatus comprising: an image capture unit configured to cyclically capture images of a subject; a storage unit including storage areas to store the images of the subject captured by the image capture unit; a storage controller configured to overwrite a storage area which is permitted to be overwritten with an image of the subject captured by the image capture unit; a life setting unit configured to respond to an overwriting by the storage controller and to set a life of the storage area which is overwritten by the storage controller; a life controller configured to gradually change the life of the storage area set by the life setting unit; a synchronization controller configured to bring the overwrite performed by the storage controller into synchronization with the change of the life made by the life controller; a determination unit configured to determine whether or not the life of the storage area changed by the life controller has expired; a permission unit configured to permit overwrite of a storage area when the determination unit determines that the life of the storage area has expired; a trigger generation unit configured to generate a trigger; and a capture controller configured to repeatedly operate the storage controller, the life setting unit, the determination unit, and the permission unit until the trigger generation unit generates the trigger.