Patent ID: 6633611
Filing Date: 2003-10-14
Classification: H04N

Abstract:
An apparatus for encoding an image signal, said apparatus comprising: a region partitioning section which includes:a partitioning processing section partitioning the image signal into a first plurality of regions based on a partition judgment criterion; and an integration processing section integrating each region of said first plurality of regions with adjacent regions to convert said first plurality of regions into a second plurality of regions, wherein said integration processing section includes; a provisional encoder preliminarily encoding an image per region of said first plurality of regions and calculating the amount of code thereof; a decoder decoding the image encoded by said provisional encoder; an encoding distortion calculating section calculating encoding distortion by using the image decoded by said decoder; and an evaluation value calculating section calculating an evaluation value for judging merit of encoding while taking into consideration both said amount of code and said encoding distortion, wherein it is determined for each region of said first plurality of regions whether or not to perform integration based on a result of comparing the evaluation value that is obtained in the case where said each region is integrated with adjacent regions and the evaluation value that is obtained in the case where said each region is not integrated with adjacent regions; and an encoder separately encoding each region of said second plurality of regions.