Patent ID: 8885709

Claim:
An image decoding device for decoding a bitstream having views each of which includes a picture and coded in a method including inter-view prediction, the image decoding device comprising: a decoder that decodes a bitstream of a first view coded and a bitstream of a second view coded with reference to the first view; and a buffer memory located upstream of the decoder that stores the bitstreams which are to be provided to the decoder, wherein, in the case where the first view and the second view are assigned an identical decoding point in time, the identical decoding point in time being information included in each of the bitstream of the first view coded and the bitstream of the second view coded or in header information of multiplexed data of the bitstream of the first view coded and the bitstream of the second view coded, the decoder decodes a picture of the second view at a point in time determined by adding a delay time to the decoding point in time of the picture of the second view, the delay time having a length required to complete decoding of the picture of the first view, and the buffer memory is of a size that is equal to or larger than D+R×T×(n−1) where D represents a specified size determined assuming that the bitstream of each of the views is extracted from the buffer memory at a corresponding decoding point in time assigned to each of the views, n represents a number of views included in the bitstreams of the views, T represents a maximum length of time necessary for decoding each picture included in the views, and R represents a predetermined data loading rate at which the bitstream of each of the views is loaded into the buffer memory.