Patent ID: 8797348

Claim:
An image display apparatus, comprising: an image acquiring unit that acquires a plurality of images; an image classifying unit that classifies the plurality of images into a plurality of groups having a rank order associated therewith; a group image layout unit that places respective group images corresponding to each of the plurality of groups, according to the rank order of the groups, along a group image layout reference line which is a curved line including a portion extending in a lower right direction and a portion extending in a lower left direction provided in a display region; a defining unit that defines grid regions of a first given size in the display region; an extracting unit that extracts, from among the grid regions, respective sets of successive grid regions on which no group image is placed as respective representative image layout candidate regions, where respective sizes of the representative image layout candidate regions are larger than a second given size; a designating unit that designates, among the representative image layout candidate regions, a plurality of representative image layout regions; a representative image layout unit that: (i) places a respective representative image on each of the designated representative image layout regions, each of the respective representative images being selected from among the plurality of images belonging to any one of the plurality of groups represented by one of the respective group images on the group image layout reference line that is displayed within a circular boundary defined by a predetermined radius from a predetermined point within the respective representative image layout region; and (ii) repeats the selection and placement such that new respective representative images are displayed on each of the designated representative image layout regions at one or more predetermined time intervals; and a displaying unit that displays, on a screen, at least part of the display region.