Patent ID: 7561187

Claim:
An image distributing apparatus, including: an image register storing photograph images that are photographed by rotating a photographing apparatus and continuously photographing a periphery of the photographing apparatus, wherein each photograph image corresponds to a photographing direction and has a first angle of view, wherein each photograph image overlaps a preceding photograph image and a subsequent photograph image, at an angle of view which is larger than a second angle of view of distribution images; a request receiver receiving a distribution request which specifies any direction in the periphery of the photographing apparatus as a specified direction, wherein the specified direction corresponds to a selected viewing region of the periphery of the photographing apparatus; a reader reading out the distribution images in accordance with the specified direction of the distribution request, wherein the distribution images have the second angle of view smaller than the first angle of view, wherein the distribution images are image data for the selected viewing region extracted from each photograph image that contains image data for the selected viewing region, wherein distribution images corresponding to the same selected viewing region are read out from photograph images having different photographing directions; and a distributor distributing the distribution images to request destinations of the distribution requests.