Patent ID: 8175401

Claim:
An image processing apparatus comprising: an image partitioning unit that partitions an image represented by input image information into image partitions, each containing a plurality of pixels; a run coding unit that run-length encodes image partitions for which all pixels contained in any of the image partitions match with a pixel value in a predetermined position in another image partition; an independently coding unit that encodes image partitions other than image partitions encoded by the run coding unit, so that resulting codes are decoded independently for each image partition; a code converting unit that converts a run length code generated by the run coding unit to codes that are decoded independently for each image partition, as appropriate for an image edit; an image partition manipulating unit that manipulates codes resulting from conversion by the code converting unit or codes generated by the independently coding unit in units of the image partitions, as appropriate for the image edit; a decoding unit that decodes image information manipulated by the image partition manipulating unit; and a pixel manipulating unit that manipulates the decoded image information by the decoding unit in units of pixels, as appropriate for the image edit, wherein if image partitions that are deleted by requested shift processing overlap some of the image partitions represented by a run length code, the code converting unit splits the run length code; the image partition manipulating unit shifts positions of encoded image information in units of the image partitions; and the pixel manipulating unit shifts decoded image information in units of pixels.