Patent ID: 8625918

Claim:
An image processing apparatus comprising: a quantizer configured to quantize orthogonal transform coefficients of a difference in block units between a coding target picture and a prediction image; a predictor configured to conduct parallax prediction utilizing correlations between the coding target picture and a picture whose view differs from the coding target picture; and a quantization controller configured to determine a protected area that protects image quality from the parallax prediction results, and reduce a quantization step size of the quantizer for quantization of the protected area; wherein: the quantization controller is configured to determine the protected area by using at least one from among a parallax vector detected by the parallax prediction and error from when parallax compensation was conducted using the parallax vector; and in a case of using a parallax vector detected by the parallax prediction, the quantization controller is configured to determine if a coding target block image is the protected area at least in part on the basis of at least one from among comparison results between a parallax vector of an already-coded picture and the coding target block and comparison results between a parallax vector of an immediately preceding already-coded block and a parallax vector of the coding target block.