Patent ID: 6798916
Filing Date: 2004-09-28
Classification: H04N

Abstract:
An image decoding method of decoding each block of a digital image divided into a plurality of blocks, from a coded image signal including codewords of the each block and codewords of coding mode information of the each block, said method comprising:separating the codewords of a target block and the codeword of coding mode information of the target block from the coded image signal; decoding the coding mode information of the target block from the separated codeword of the coding mode information using a codeword table, the codeword table being selected from a plurality of codeword tables by referring to a combination of coding mode information of previously decoded blocks at the periphery of the target block, said codeword tables each having codewords, each codeword being determined based on a combination of coding mode information of previously decoded blocks at the periphery of the each target block; and decoding pixel data of the target block from the separated codewords of the target block, based on the decoded coding mode information of the target block.