Patent ID: 8204319

Claim:
An image compression apparatus comprising: a first imaging section for capturing an image of a subject to generate a first image signal; a second imaging section for capturing an image of the subject to generate a second image signal; a first encoding section for encoding the first image signal generated by the first imaging section to generate first image data; a second encoding section for encoding the second image signal generated by the second imaging section to generate second image data; a first distance measuring section for measuring a distance to the subject for each of image blocks, at the same time as the first imaging section performs image capturing, to generate first distance information; a second distance measuring section for measuring a distance to the subject for each of image blocks, at the same time as the second imaging section performs image capturing, to generate second distance information; a first multiplexing section for generating first multiplexed data on the basis of the first image data generated by the first encoding section and the distance measured by the first distance measuring section, the first multiplexed data being generated by multiplexing first distance data and the first image data, the first distance data being generated on the basis of the first distance information and indicating the distance to the subject for each of predefined pixel blocks in the first image data; a second multiplexing section for generating second multiplexed data on the basis of the second image data generated by the second encoding section and the distance measured by the second distance measuring section, the second multiplexed data being generated by multiplexing second distance data and the second image data, the second distance data being generated on the basis of the second distance information and indicating the distance to the subject for each of predefined pixel blocks in the second image data; and a compression processing section for reducing amounts of the first multiplexed data and the second multiplexed data to generate compressed data, wherein the compression processing section generates the compressed data by extracting long-distance blocks, in which the distance to the subject is larger than a predetermined threshold, in the first image data on the basis of the first distance data contained in the first multiplexed data generated by the first multiplexing section, extracting long-distance blocks in the second image data on the basis of the second distance data contained in the second multiplexed data generated by the second multiplexing section, calculating a differential between the long-distance blocks in the first multiplexed data and the long-distance blocks in the second multiplexed data, and deleting the long-distance blocks in the first multiplexed data or the long-distance blocks in the second multiplexed data which are identical to their counterparts in the other multiplexed data.