Patent ID: 8144763

Claim:
An apparatus for setting a frame rate under which images are captured by an imaging device in an image capturing system including a plurality of imaging devices and a plurality of sensors, the apparatus comprising: a storage unit configured to store information related to said imaging device, said information related to said imaging device indicating a predetermined frame rate for each of the plurality of imaging devices based on a respective signal received from one of the plurality of sensors, and to store a plurality of frame rate function data which each correspond to a different function indicating how a frame rate of the imaging device varies over a predetermined time interval, wherein at least one of the frame rate function data indicates a non-constant frame rate over the predetermined time interval; a first reception unit configured to receive a first signal from at least one of said sensors; an association unit configured to associate said first signal with the information related to said imaging device; a calculation unit configured to determine a frame rate of each of said plurality of imaging devices based on said association between said first signal and said information related to said imaging device; a setting unit configured to set said frame rate of each of said plurality of imaging devices according to a result of the determination by said calculation unit, and to set a variation of a frame rate of said imaging device according to one of the plurality of frame rate function data stored in the storage unit, wherein one of the plurality of frame rate function data is separately set for each of the plurality of imaging devices based on the reception of the first signal from the at least one of said sensors; and a second reception unit configured to receive image data from each of said plurality of imaging devices at said frame rate set by said setting unit.