Patent ID: 8451894

Claim:
A video encoding method for encoding video images as a single video image by using parallax compensation which performs prediction by using parallax between the video images, the method comprising: a reference parallax setting step of setting reference parallax for each pixel in a target image to be encoded, wherein the reference parallax is estimated using a reference image; an area division setting step of setting area division in an image frame; a parallax displacement setting step of setting parallax displacement for each divided area set in the area division setting step, wherein the parallax displacement is the difference between the reference parallax and parallax used for the parallax compensation and has a common value within each divided area; a predicted image generating step of generating a predicted image for the parallax compensation, for each pixel (x, y) of the target image, by using parallax which is obtained for the pixel as a unit by adding the set reference parallax d A [x,y] to the common parallax displacement e n which is set for the area to which the pixel belongs according to the formula d A [x, y]+e n which is repeated for n=0, 1, . . . , N−1, where N is the number of candidates for the common parallax displacement so as to determine one optimum common parallax displacement e; an area division data encoding step of encoding area division data for indicating the area division which is set in the area division setting step; and a parallax displacement data encoding step of encoding parallax displacement data for indicating the parallax displacement which is set in the parallax displacement setting step.