An image compression device comprising an image division unit dividing an
image into a plurality of regions, a region designation unit designating
a region of interest in the image, a quantization rate determination unit
determining quantization rate with respect to each region divided by the
image division unit, and a compression control unit controlling
compression with respect to each region based on the quantization rate
determined by the quantization rate determination unit is disclosed. In
the image compression device, the quantization rate determination unit
can determine quantization rate for the region of interest different from
the quantization rate for the regions other than the region of interest.