Patent ID: 9332275
Filing Date: 2016-05-03
CPC Classification: H04N

Claim Text:
1. A picture encoding method for performing compressive encoding on an input picture, the picture encoding method comprising: a divided picture generating step of, when the input picture is divided into blocks each having n×m pixels and each divided block is divided into sub-blocks each having n an intra divided-picture encoding step of performing intra divided-picture encoding on at least one of the divided pictures; an inter divided-picture encoding step of selecting, among encoded divided pictures, an encoded divided picture having the shortest distance on an original picture with respect to pixels at the same position in an encoding target divided picture and the encoded divided pictures as a reference picture, generating a predicted picture for the encoding target divided picture using the selected reference picture, and performing inter divided-picture encoding; a correlation direction calculating step of calculating a direction in which a correlation with a pixel on the original picture is highest with respect to pixels at the same position in each encoded divided picture serving as a candidate for the reference picture and a reference picture of each encoded divided picture serving as the candidate for the reference picture based on a prediction error in inter divided-picture prediction of each encoded divided picture serving as the candidate for the reference picture when a plurality of candidates for the reference picture are present; a reference picture selecting step of selecting an encoded divided picture in the direction in which the correlation is high for the encoding target divided picture as the reference picture when the plurality of candidates for the reference picture are present; and an information source encoding step of performing information source encoding on encoding results in the intra divided-picture encoding step and the inter divided-picture encoding step.