Patent ID: 7302002

Claim:
An image encoder for encoding an image formed of objects, with an object encoded by intracoding being an intra-video object plane (I-VOP), an object encoded by either intracoding or forward predictive coding being a predictive-VOP (P-VOP), and an object encoded by either intracoding, forward predictive coding, backward predictive coding, or bidirectionally predictive coding being a bidirectionally predictive-VOP (B-VOP), the image encoder comprising: a first adder for grouping said objects into one or more groups and adding a time code to the group, the time code representing a time of a display order of a first object in the group, the time code including time code hours representing an hour unit of the time code, time code minutes representing a minute unit of the time code, and time code seconds representing a second unit of the time code; a second-accuracy time information generator means for generating second-accuracy time information indicative of time having an accuracy of one second; a detailed time information generator for generating detailed time information indicative of a time period between said second-accuracy time information which directly precedes a display time of said I-VOP, P-VOP, or B-VOP and a display time of the predetermined object with an accuracy finer than the accuracy of one second; and a second adder for adding said second-accuracy time information and said detailed time information to a corresponding I-VOP, P-VOP, or B-VOP as information indicative of the display time of said I-VOP, P-VOP, and B-VOP.