Patent ID: 6937773

Claim:
An image encoding apparatus for encoding image signals of a plurality of frames, comprising: input means for inputting an image signal including pixel values of a frame; transformation means for applying a discrete wavelet transform to the image signal of each frame and outputting transformed coefficients for each frame; motion detection means for detecting motion of an image based upon the image signals of plural frames; counting means for counting a number of pixels based upon information indicating motion of the image detected by said motion detection means; selection means for selecting a method of designating an area of the image based upon information indicating motion of the image detected by said motion detection means, the selection being based upon the number of pixels counted by said counting means, and for designating a region of the image of the frame based upon the information; quantization means for quantizing the transformed coefficients of each frame so as to differentiate an image quality of the image of the designated region from an image of other regions, and outputting a quantized image signal; and encoding means for encoding the quantized image signal quantized by said quantization means.