code: def objects_to_list_of_image_dicts(
      objs: Union[
          List[str],
          List[dict],
          List[np.ndarray],
          List["PIL.Image.Image"],
      ],
  ) -> List[dict]:
      """Encode a list of objects into a format suitable for creating an extension array of type `ImageExtensionType`."""
      if config.PIL_AVAILABLE:
          import PIL.Image
      else:
          raise ImportError(
              "To support encoding images, please install 'Pillow'."
          )
  
      if objs:
          _, obj = first_non_null_value(objs)
          if isinstance(obj, str):
              return [
                  {"path": obj, "bytes": None}
                  if obj is not None
                  else None
                  for obj in objs
              ]
          if isinstance(obj, np.ndarray):
              obj_to_image_dict_func = no_op_if_value_is_null(
                  encode_np_array
              )
              return [obj_to_image_dict_func(obj) for obj in objs]
          elif isinstance(obj, PIL.Image.Image):
              obj_to_image_dict_func = no_op_if_value_is_null(
                  encode_pil_image
              )
              return [obj_to_image_dict_func(obj) for obj in objs]
          else:
              return objs
      else:
          return objs
  
imports: import os
  import sys
  import warnings
  from dataclasses import dataclass, field
  from io import BytesIO
  from typing import TYPE_CHECKING, Any, ClassVar, Dict, List, Optional, Union
  import numpy
  import pyarrow
  from ..None import config
  from ..download.download_config import DownloadConfig
  from ..download.streaming_download_manager import xopen
  from ..table import array_cast
  from ..utils.file_utils import is_local_path
  from ..utils.py_utils import first_non_null_value, no_op_if_value_is_null, string_to_dict
label_desc: Use image node_id 5 for calling a global function with example usage: objects_to_list_of_image_dicts(objs) and returns: objs, unknown, unknown, unknown, objs