Patent ID: 7643559

Claim:
A coding method of performing compression coding of a moving picture by motion compensated prediction performed by a coding apparatus, said coding method comprising: a motion compensated prediction step of performing, at a motion detector of said coding apparatus, the motion compensated prediction while assigning one or more motion vectors in units of second blocks in accordance with an assignment pattern preliminarily determined by grouping one or more second blocks obtained by sub-dividing each of first blocks resulting from division of a frame of the moving picture; and an assignment information coding step of outputting information about an assignment situation of the one or more motion vectors to the second blocks in a multiplexed form on a bitstream by using identification information of the assignment pattern as the information about the assignment situation of the one or more motion vectors, wherein said assignment information coding step includes assigning a variable length code to the assignment pattern based on at least one of a number of divisions, a division direction, and an area ratio of divided regions of the assignment pattern, and coding, at a variable length encoder of said coding apparatus, identification information of the assignment pattern using the assigned variable length code.