Patent ID: 7565023

Claim:
A method for encoding images according to object shapes, for providing reduced usage of storage space when an image encoding system encodes a received image frame, the method comprising the steps of: (1) receiving the image frame and extracting shape information of an object contained in the image frame to establish an object shape frame; (2) decomposing the object shape frame into N levels of subbands, so as to form each pixel in the object shape frame into a two-dimensional coefficient; (3) encoding coefficients in a bottom-up manner and in sequential order by starting from the lowest-level subbands, and encoding predetermined coefficients in the upper levels of subbands based on importance of coefficients in the lower levels of subbands, wherein the sequential order means arranging coefficients in different levels of the same subband from lower level to upper level according to a first-child-then-parent principle; and (4) storing a bit stream generated after the encoding process.