Patent ID: 8134605

Claim:
An image capturing apparatus connectable to a network, comprising: image capturing means for capturing a moving image; storage means for storing said captured moving image; playback means for playing back said stored moving image at a controllable playback speed; maintaining means for maintaining a composition file which forms a home page with a display area for displaying said captured or stored moving image within the home page; receiving means for receiving via said network a first command output by a remote electronic device, said first command requesting a home page from said maintaining means, said receiving means subsequently receiving from said remote electronic device a second command, said second command selectively controlling said image capturing means and/or said playback means; detecting means for detecting whether said second command from said remote electronic device requests a real-time image which is being captured by said image capturing means or a pre-recorded image which is stored in said storage means; transmission means for transmitting said composition file via said network to said electronic device in response to said received first command, whereby said home page is displayed on said electronic device; MPEG compression means, operable at a controllable compression rate, for MPEG-compressing said moving image captured by said image capturing means or the played back stored moving image to generate an MPEG-compressed moving image data; supply means for supplying said MPEG-compressed moving image data generated by said MPEG compression means to said electronic device via said network in response to said subsequently received second command, said MPEG-compressed moving image data representing either said real-time image or said pre-recorded image, depending upon said received second command, whereby the supplied image is displayed in said display area of said home page displayed on said electronic device; and line checking means for checking a communication capacity and a degree of congestion on said network and for controlling said MPEG compression means to change the MPEG compression rate of said MPEG compression means when said second command requests a real-time image, thereby increasing the MPEG compression rate of the MPEG-compressed real-time image supplied over said network to said electronic device from said image capturing apparatus when the communication capacity of said network is small, and, when said second command requests a pre-recorded image, increasing the MPEG compression rate of the MPEG-compressed played back image supplied over said network to said electronic device from said image capturing apparatus when the communication capacity of said network is small, to correspond to the communication capacity and degree of congestion on said network.