Patent ID: 7308150

Claim:
An image coding apparatus, comprising: a plurality of pixel value predicting means for sequentially selecting pixels in image data to be processed as pixels of interest in a predetermined scanning order and generating predicted pixel values of the pixels of interest, wherein each pixel value predicting means generates a predicted pixel value based on a pixel value of a predicting pixel located at a distance from the pixel of interest predetermined for each pixel value predicting means; run-length count means for counting, as a run-length for each pixel value predicting means, the number of times that the pixel values of the sequentially selected pixels of interest successively correspond with the predicted pixel values generated by each pixel value predicting means based on a relationship between the pixels of interest and the predicting pixels; selecting means for selecting any of pixel value predicting means related to a run-length of one pixel or more; and coding means for referring to a predetermined code table and outputting a resulting code, wherein the code table includes information with respect to a distance between the pixel of interest and the pixel predicted by the selected pixel value predicting means and the run-length of the selected pixel value predicting means, and wherein said code table further includes, as a redundant code, codes related to a distance for all other possible positional relationships detected in a predetermined range.