Patent ID: 8209188

Claim:
A coding apparatus comprising: a base layer coder comprising a processor that encodes a low frequency band, which is a band lower than a predetermined frequency of an input signal, and obtains first coding information; a local decoder that decodes the first coding information and generates a decoded signal; a subtractor that subtracts the decoded signal from the input signal and obtains a subtraction signal; and an enhancement layer coder comprising: a spectral characteristic calculator that calculates a spectral characteristic of an envelope, which is comprised of parameters generated in decoding processing of the local decoder or which is comprised of parameters obtained by converting parameters generated in decoding processing for an entire band; a transformer that transforms the spectral characteristic of the envelope such that a quantization precision in the low frequency band is lower than in other bands; and a vector quantizer that determines bit allocation for vector quantization or weights for vector search, using the transformed spectral characteristic, wherein: the enhancement layer coder encodes the subtraction signal based on the bit allocation or the weights for vector search to obtain second coding information.