Patent ID: 7085379

Claim:
An image compression apparatus for compressing luminance element image data and chrominance element image data by dividing each element image data into a plurality of blocks, comprising: a resolution determination processing section ( 38 , 142 ) adaptively setting a resolution of each block during reduction according to a predetermined criterion for each of said luminance element image data and said chrominance element image data, and creating resolution information; a data creation processing section ( 44 ) connected to said resolution determination processing section ( 38 , 142 ), and creating data having each block reduced based on said resolution information for each of said luminance element image data and said chrominance element image data; and an encoder ( 42 , 48 A, 48 B) connected to said resolution determination section ( 38 , 142 ) and said data creation processing section ( 44 ), and encoding an output of each of said resolution information and said data creation processing section ( 44 ).