Patent ID: 8773496

Claim:
A control apparatus for selective content sharing, the control apparatus comprising: a processor; an input unit for receiving a captured image; a memory storing content data and instructions, the instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to: establish communication with a communication target apparatus; reproduce content indicated by the content data, the reproduced content representing an image; determine whether or not to share the reproduced content indicated by the content data with the communication target apparatus; selectively perform, in accordance with a result of the determination, a process to share or not share the reproduced content indicated by the content data with the communication target apparatus, such that, when the reproduced content indicated by the content data is determined not to be shared with the communication target apparatus, (i) share a generated speech audio signal with the communication target apparatus and (ii) to not share the reproduced content indicated by the content data with the communication target apparatus, and, when the reproduced content indicated by the content data is determined to be shared with the communication target apparatus, share the generated speech audio signal with the communication target apparatus and to share the reproduced content indicated by the content data with the communication target apparatus; and cause the captured image and the image represented by the reproduced content to be displayed on a display in a first manner when the reproduced content is determined to be shared with the communication target apparatus and in a second manner which is different from the first manner when the reproduced content is determined not to be shared with the communication target apparatus, so as to provide a visual indication to a user as to whether or not the reproduced content is being shared with the communication target apparatus, in which in the first manner the captured image and the image represented by the reproduced content are arranged so as to appear to be in a virtual space on the display, and in which in the second manner the captured image and the image represented by the reproduced content are arranged in different regions on the display without appearing to be in the virtual space.