Patent ID: 8160890

Claim:
An audio signal coding method for coding an audio signal to be coded, said method comprising: judging, using a judging unit, for each of frames whether or not coding should be performed on each of two or more subframes into which the frame is divided, based on an audio signal contained in the frame into which the audio signal to be coded is divided for every set of samples; and when judged that the coding should be performed on each of the subframes, performing, using a subframe processing unit, for each subframe, subframe processing of (i) determining a value representing a characteristic of an audio signal of the subframe, and (ii) coding the audio signal using the determined value, wherein in said performing of the subframe processing, whether or not all the values determined for the subframes are the same is judged, and when all the values are the same, the audio signal is coded as exceptional processing, using a characteristic different from characteristics of audio signals indicated by the values.