Patent ID: 6535559
Filing Date: 2003-03-18
Classification: H04N

Abstract:
An image encoder for encoding and image formed of a sequence of objects, comprising:an image receiver; and an encoder for partitioning one or more sequences of objects into one or more groups and encoding said groups; wherein, if an object encoded by intracoding is an intra-video object plane (I-VOP), and if an object encoded by either intracoding or forward predictive coding is a predictive-VOP (P-VOP), and if an object encoded by either intracoding, forward predictive coding, backward predictive coding, or bidirectionally predictive coding is a bidirectionally predictive-VOP (B-VOP), said encoder further comprises: a second-accuracy time information generator for generating second-accuracy time information representative of time with an accuracy of one second based on encoding absolute start time; a detailed time information generator for generating detailed time information indicative of a time period between said second-accuracy time information which directly precedes a display time of said I-VOP, P-VOP, or B-VOP included in an object group and said display time, said detailed time information having an accuracy finer than the accuracy of one second; and an adder for adding said second-accuracy time information and detailed time information to a corresponding I-VOP, P-VOP, or B-VOP as information indicative of the display time of said I-VOP, P-VOP, or B-VOP.