Patent ID: RE41533

Claim:
An image processing method for performing block-by-block decoding of a coded image signal that is obtained by performing a coding process including frequency transformation to a digital image signal, for each of blocks constituting a single display screen, said method comprising: performing rearrangement to an input signal of a decoding target block to be subjected to decoding that is obtained by coding various frequency components which have been subjected to an inter-frame prediction process and an intra-frame prediction process in a prescribed order, with switching, on the basis of flag information indicating switching of rearrangement, which information is input together with the input signal, between the first rearrangement operation in which the input signal is subjected to adaptive rearrangement in an order according to the kinds of both the prediction processes, and the second rearrangement operation in which the input signal is subjected to rearrangement in a specific order, regardless of the kinds of both the prediction processes; generating intra-frame predicted values of frequency components corresponding to the decoding target block from frequency components corresponding to an already decoded block located in the vicinity of the decoding target block, by the intra-frame prediction process; generating frequency components corresponding to the decoding target block on the basis of the input signal after the rearrangement and the intra-frame predicted values; performing inverse frequency transformation to the frequency components corresponding to the decoding target block to generate one of an image signal corresponding to the decoding target block and a difference signal corresponding to the same block; and adding, to the difference signal corresponding to the decoding target block, inter-frame predicted values of an image signal of the decoding target block, which are generated from an image signal corresponding to an already decoded display screen different from a display screen including the decoding target block by the inter-frame prediction process, thereby generating an image signal corresponding to the decoding target block.