Patent ID: 8773462

Claim:
A drawing image sharing apparatus, comprising: a data receiver to receive a drawing image that reflects drawings drawn onto a second drawing object located at a remotely located site that is remote from a site at which a first drawing object is located; an image editor to combine the drawing image of the second drawing object and a background image to be displayed onto the first drawing object, to generate a combined image of the second drawing object; a background image memory to store the background image to be displayed onto the first drawing object; an image supplier to cause a display device to display the combined image of the second drawing object onto the first drawing object as a display image; an image obtainer to cause an image capturing device to obtain an image being displayed onto the first drawing object as a captured image; a differential image generator to obtain a previous display image that is previously displayed onto the first drawing object, and to generate a differential image that reflects the difference between the previous display image and the captured image obtained by the image obtainer; a profile data memory to store profile data of a drawing image sharing apparatus of the remotely located site; a data transmitter to transmit the differential image to the remotely located site for display onto the second drawing object as a drawing image of the first drawing object; and a determiner to determine a type of request received from the background image memory and control the data transmitter according to the determined type of request, wherein the profile data stored in the profile data memory includes information regarding whether the drawing image sharing apparatus of the remotely located site has a function of combining images to generate a combined image.