Patent ID: 8902982

Claim:
A depth image coding apparatus, comprising: an intra-mode prediction unit to predict directivity of a current macro block using coded adjacent macro blocks; an intra-coding unit to intra-code the current macro block according to each of intra-candidate coding modes; an inter-coding unit to inter-code the current macro block according to each of inter-candidate coding modes; and a coding mode determination unit to determine a coding mode having a lowest rate distortion optimization (RDO) cost among coding modes included in the intra-candidate coding modes and the inter-candidate coding modes as a coding mode of the current macro block, in consideration of priorities of the coding modes, wherein the coding mode determination unit varies the priorities of the coding modes included in the inter-candidate coding modes and the inter-candidate coding modes, according to a final determination of frequencies of the coding modes, wherein the intra-candidate coding modes comprise an intra-prediction mode for intra-coding using the predicted directivity.