Patent ID: 7116713

Claim:
A moving picture coding method for coding a moving picture of processing object through a predetermined process including a motion estimating process, comprising: determining whether or not said predetermined process for a block of processing object can be omitted on the basis of the information regarding a difference between said block and a reference block of a frame to be referenced in coding, and a quantization parameter for use in a quantization process of said moving picture, performing said predetermined process if it is determined that said predetermined process can not be omitted, and omitting said predetermined process if it is determined that said predetermined process can be omitted and making a set defined value the result of said predetermined process for said block, wherein if a certain percentage or more of the results of said predetermined process for the block of processing object are not zero on the basis of the information regarding the difference between the block of processing object and the reference block of the frame to be referenced in coding and the quantization parameter for use in the quantization process of said moving picture, it is determined that said predetermined process can not be omitted, while if the certain percentage or more of the results of said predetermined process for the block of processing object are zero, it is determined that said predetermined process can be omitted, and said defined value is made zero.