Patent ID: 7697768

Claim:
An image encoding apparatus comprising: an image dividing unit for dividing an image into a plurality of areas which overlaps with other areas; a plurality of image compression and encoding units for compressing and encoding said plurality of areas of the image generated by the image dividing unit; a transmission request receiving unit for receiving an image transmission request from a client via a network; an image area selection unit for selecting areas generated by said image dividing unit to be transmitted to the client based on the image transmission request from the client; and an image transmission unit for transmitting a compressed and encoded image, which corresponds to the areas selected by said image area selection unit, to the client, wherein if said compressed and encoded image is requested by more than one client, the transmission of the requested image to the clients is prioritized so that it is transmitted to a higher-priority client before it is transmitted to a lower-priority client; and wherein the processing loads of said image compression and encoding units are averaged by preventing the same said image compression and encoding units from continuously compressing and encoding the same ones of said plurality of areas of the image.