Patent ID: 8010349

Claim:
A scalable coding apparatus, comprising: a lower layer coder that encodes an input signal and generates lower layer encoded parameters; a lower layer decoder that decodes the lower layer encoded parameters and generates a lower layer decoded signal; a first spectral outline calculator that calculates a spectral outline of the input signal based on the input signal; a second spectral outline calculator that calculates a spectral outline of the lower layer decoded signal based on the lower layer decoded signal; a predictive information coder that obtains predictive information by predicting the spectral outline of the input signal from the spectral outline of the lower layer decoded signal and encodes the predictive information; a predictive information decoder that decodes the encoded predictive information; a spectral detail information coder that generates an estimated spectrum of the input signal based on a spectrum of the lower layer decoded signal and the decoded predictive information, and generates and encodes spectral detail information that indicates a spectral characteristic of the input signal that does not appear in the spectral outline of the input signal based on a spectrum of the input signal and the estimated spectrum of the input signal; and an outputter that outputs the lower layer encoded parameters and outputs the encoded predictive information and the encoded spectral detail information as upper layer encoded parameters.