Patent ID: 8520730

Claim:
A picture coding apparatus that divides a picture signal into slices each including blocks, and codes, per block, each of the slices, said picture coding apparatus comprising: a dividing unit configured to divide a picture into an intra- (I-) slice and an inter (P) slice, the I-slice being coded using a correlation between pixels in a slice, the P slice being coded using the correlation between pixels in the slice and a correlation between pixels in different slices, and each of the I-slice and the P slice including blocks; and a coding unit configured to code each of the slices per block so as to code pictures that are temporally consecutive, each of the pictures being the picture, wherein said dividing unit is configured (i) to change a position of the I-slice in each of the temporally consecutive pictures so that positions of I-slices each of which is the I-slice circulate in a to-be-determined number of pictures among the temporally consecutive pictures, and (ii) to divide each of the temporally consecutive pictures so that a sum of the number of blocks included in the I-slice and the number of blocks included in one or more P slices that are all of P slices between the I-slice and an I-slice subsequent to the I-slice becomes a predetermined value, each of the one or more P slices being the P slice, wherein said dividing unit is configured to divide at least one of the to-be-determined number of pictures among the temporally consecutive pictures, into P slices having no I-slice, wherein said dividing unit is configured to divide the picture into the I-slice including M blocks, and the one or more P slices each of which includes N blocks and which exclude a P slice that is in a specific position within the picture, M being an integer value equal to or larger than zero, N being a positive integer value, and M<N, wherein said dividing unit is configured to divide the picture into the I-slice and the one or more P slices so that the position of the I-slice is repeatedly moved from an edge of one of the pictures to an other edge of an other one of the pictures, for each group of a predetermined number of pictures in the temporally consecutive pictures, wherein said coding unit includes: a coded data generating unit configured to code (i) the I-slice using a correlation between pixels in the I-slice and (ii) each of the one or more P slices using a correlation between pixels in the slices or a correlation between pixels in the different slices to generate coded data of the temporally consecutive pictures; and a stream generating unit configured to generate a stream including common data referred to by the temporally consecutive pictures and the coded data of the temporally consecutive pictures, and wherein said stream generating unit is configured to arrange the common data immediately prior to a part of the coded data obtained by coding one of the temporally consecutive pictures at the edge of which the I-slice is located.