Patent ID: 8773408

Claim:
A display control apparatus for displaying an image from among a plurality of images arrayed in a predetermined order in an enlarged scale, comprising: storage means having a storage area sufficient to store decoded data of a plurality of images; detection means for detecting an operation in a predetermined direction by a user; display control means for causing, when an image is to be displayed in an enlarged scale in response to detection of an operation by the user by said detection means, an image of an object to be displayed in an enlarged scale based on the decoded data stored in said storage means so as to be used for display of the image of the object; and decoding means for storing the decoded data of a predetermined number of images positioned in a direction corresponding to the direction of the operation by the user with reference to the position of the image displayed by said display control means in the array of the images in the predetermined order into said storage means and storing the decoded data of a number of images smaller than the predetermined number which are positioned in a direction corresponding to a direction opposite to the direction of the operation by the user into said storage means, wherein when the user executes an operation in the direction opposite to the operation in a predetermined direction, selected ones of the predetermined number of images are deleted from the storage means one-by-one, and selected ones of the arrayed images, other than an image displayed upon the execution of the operation in the direction opposite and the images of the predetermined number of images, are decoded and stored in the storage means one-by-one, such that deletion of an image and storage of an image are alternately performed on an image-by-image basis, the deletions occurring in descending order of distance from the image displayed upon the execution of the operation in the direction opposite.