Patent ID: 7809732

Claim:
An image processing system comprising: an image processing apparatus, which combines material images to generate a mosaic image in imitation of an original image; an image storage apparatus; and a communication channel between the image processing apparatus and the image storage apparatus; wherein the image processing apparatus includes: means for holding color information of each of a plurality of material images, the color information corresponding respectively to the plurality of material images, and the color information being retrieved from the image storage apparatus; receiving means for receiving the color information corresponding to the plurality of material images from the image storage apparatus; division means for dividing the original image into a plurality of blocks; selection means for selecting subsets of the material images out of the plurality of material images such that each subset of the material images has color information similar to color information of a corresponding block of the plurality of divided blocks based on the color information of each of the plurality of material images and the color information of each of the plurality of divided blocks; first output means for outputting identifications of the subsets of the material images selected by the selection means to the image storage apparatus via the communication channel; and combining means for combining material images, wherein the image storage apparatus includes: storage means for storing the plurality of material images; and second output means for outputting the subsets of the material images selected by the selection means out of the plurality of material images stored in the storage means according to the identifications of the subsets of the material images output by the first output means via the communication channel, wherein the combining means combines the subsets of the material images output by the second output means, and wherein the image processing apparatus receives the subsets of the material images selected by the selection means from the image storage apparatus by the receiving means and arranges the subsets of the material images received by the receiving means according to the positions selected by the selection means to form a mosaic image.