Patent ID: 8842731

Claim:
A method for coding an image or a sequence of images generating a data stream comprising data representative of at least one group of pixels in one of said images, said method comprising the steps of: selecting, for a group of pixels to be coded, an initial partition in a predetermined set of partitions of predetermined linear form one pixel wide and a plurality of pixels long, splitting partially said group of pixels to be coded according to said selected initial partition, predicting said initial partition with respect to at least one reference partition, said reference partition being a partition coded previously to said group of pixels to be coded, propagating said initial partition selected in rest of said group of pixels to be coded, until said group is split in its entirety into a plurality of partitions, the rest of said group of pixels being split into a plurality of further partitions whose˜respective form is adapted in order that the partitions do not overlap in the rest of said group of pixels, traversing said further partitions in a plurality of orders and predicting said further partitions one after the other and thereby generating a plurality of predictions in accordance with respective ones of said plurality of orders of traversal of said partitions, wherein the prediction of a current further partition in said group of pixels to be coded is performed with respect to at least one reference partition, said reference partition being a partition within said group of pixels to be coded which was predicted previously to the current partition and having already been coded, and then decoded, and wherein, in at least one of said plurality of orders of traversal, at least one partition does not immediately neighbor its respective said reference partition, selecting, from among said plurality of orders of traversal an order of traversal which optimizes the prediction, coding said predicted group of pixels according to said selected order of traversal.