Patent ID: 8184179
Filing Date: 2012-05-22
Classification: H04N

Abstract:
1. An image processing apparatus comprising: obtaining means for obtaining a first still image, a first difficulty level indicating a complexity of the first still image, a second still image, and a second difficulty level indicating a complexity of the second still image; combining means for combining the first still image and second still image obtained by the obtaining means at a combination ratio which is changed along a time axis to generate a moving image; encoding means for performing an encoding operation to encode the moving image generated by the combining means; moving-image difficulty-level calculating means for calculating a moving-image difficulty level indicating a complexity of the moving image according to the first difficulty level and second difficulty level obtained by the obtaining means and the combination ratio changed along the time axis; and control means for controlling a characteristic including an allocated bit rate of the encoding operation performed by the encoding means according to the combination ratio changed along the time axis and the moving-image difficulty level calculated by the moving-image difficulty level calculating means, wherein the control means determines whether the moving image is an I type according to the combination ratio.