Patent ID: 8054334

Claim:
An imaging apparatus, comprising: imaging means for capturing image data of an object; compressing means for compressing the captured image data; transmitting means for transmitting the compressed image data to a communication device via a network and data other than the compressed image data; and adjusting means for adjusting a compression rate for compressing the captured image data based on a communication speed at which the compressed image data are transmitted by said transmitting means, wherein said adjusting means (i) raises the compression rate for compressing the captured image data from a first rate to a second rate greater than the first rate when said transmitting means, responsive to a request from the communication device to acquire the data other than the compressed image data when the compressed image data is being transmitted to the communication device compressed at the first rate, starts to transmit the data other than the compressed captured image data along with the compressed captured image data, and (ii) restores the compression rate for compressing the captured image data to the first rate after the data other than the compressed image data responsive to the request is transmitted to the communication device.